The First and Original Kingdom Hearts 3: Keyblade War by laredotornado
by L. E. Simmons
Summary: Just as the title says, the long sought for epic fan fic by laredotornado. First written and published online between 2006 and 2008, before further events in the Kingdom Hearts series (i.e. Birth by Sleep, 358/2) altered canon drastically, so please ignore such depictions as outdated. Enjoy it for what it was, not what it is. Fave, download, share via Twitter and Facebook.
1. Chapter 1

Kingdom Hearts III: The Keyblade War

Originally published Summer of 2006, 2008, before certain properties were published (i.e. Birth By Sleep, 358/2, etc.), so there will be many inconsistencies with established canon, so please ignore them and enjoy the story for what it was, not what it is.

Disclaimer: All properties (except stuff I made up) are owned by Disney and Square-Enix, etc.

Sora touched his forehead, gazing idly into the sky. He was on the beach, somewhere in Destiny Islands, and it was about noon, without a cloud in the perfect blue sky. Had he been sleeping? Why didn't he feel right? Like he wasn't exactly inside his own body, but somewhere else, somewhere bad? "Sora! I knew I'd find you here, you lazy bum!" He sat up suddenly, the feeling of deja vu sweeping over him, and looked around, expecting Kairi to be standing over him, laughing at him. But instead, it was a young boy with spiky, blonde hair and bright blue eyes. He grinned gently, crossing his arms over his chest. "Surprised?"

Sora rubbed his eyes, his mouth hanging open in shock. "R-Roxas? But, how?"

Suddenly, Roxas grew quiet serious, his face becoming deadly grave. "It's happening all over again, Sora. Everything we thought we accomplished didn't happen. I've come to warn you - Xehanort will not stop until he has won. Now, not only does he want Kingdom Hearts, he wants revenge."

"But we defeated Xehanort!" Sora yelled angrily. He jumped to his feet, clenching his fists unconsciously. "Both his Heartless and his Nobody! He was destroyed. And how can you be here? You're inside me."

"That's because I'm not here, silly," Roxas chuckled. "And neither are you. Wake up, Sora, now!"

Sora woke, sitting in the seat of a Gummi ship. "Hey, you okay?" He glanced to one side, Kairi staring at him worriedly. She held his hand, patting his forehead with her handkerchief.

"Goodness, you're burning up! Is something wrong? Did you have a bad dream?"

He shook his head slowly, forcing a smile. "No, nothing to worry about, I'm fine," he laughed. He sat back in the seat and stared out the cockpit window at the stars flying by. "Never better."

"Well, I hope so." There stood good old Riku, coming up out of the engine room. He smiled smugly. "Wouldn't want you screwing everything up when things start getting tough." He reached over and tousled his younger friend's hair playfully. "Just like you always do!"

"Knock it off," Sora said, but kindly, knowing Riku meant absolutely no harm by the comment.

"When will we get there?"

"Hard to say," Riku intoned, sitting down in the pilot's seat. "Especially when I really don't know where 'there' is. This crazy ship shows up right where the King's note said it would, we get in, and it takes off just like that." He reclined in the chair, sliding his hands behind his head. "Might as well make the most of it, take a nap."

"I'll pass," Sora sighed, resting his elbow on the chair's arm and shoving his fists into his cheeks. He glanced up furtively, seeing Kairi still watched him with concern in her beautiful eyes. "Really, I'm fine. Just, uh, just worried about my Mom, that's all. I didn't exactly give her the best of excuses before we left, and she didn't seem too happy about my taking off."

"Well, you could have told her the truth," Kairi suggested coyly.

"Oh, sure!" Sora scoffed. "What? That I'm the chosen wielder of an ancient, mystical weapon and I've got to travel to alien worlds to protect each one from a race of shadow-dwelling monsters who steal people's hearts? And that I usually do it with a talking dog and duck tagging along with me?" Kairi smirked slightly, then burst out into giggles. "See my dilemma?"

"Hang on!" Riku interrupted, sitting up in his seat quickly. "Indicator light just came on. We're approaching a world now!" He flipped some switches deftly, an old pro at this having traveled the cosmos in a ship similar to this one with a certain big eared, long tailed friend not too long ago. He turned and gave his friends the thumbs up. "You won't believe it - Hallow Bastion."

"Radiant Garden!" Sora and Kairi exclaimed together. Riku smiled sheepishly, and they all laughed. Kairi sighed gently. "That's where I was born."

"Welcome home, Princess," Riku said. "Okay, automatic pilot just switched off. I'm taking her in for a landing. Buckle up." Riku was a natural, Sora feeling old pangs of natural jealousy at his friend's prowess. How long ago was it when Sora desperately needed to try and be just as good as Riku at everything he did? Now, after all they had been through, all the adventures and tragedies and triumphs they had experienced, it didn't matter at all - although seriously, Riku was really, REALLY good at flying.

The great citadel of Radiant Garden appeared through the clouds, and all three teenagers gasped. The last time they where there, it had been a great city undergoing major renovation, and still surrounded by endless wasteland. Now, it was a sparkling jewel in the middle of a budding forest, a real garden. "Wow, they've really kept busy," Riku commented, whistling sharply. He glanced at the control panel. "We're receiving a homing signal, directing us where to land. They're definitely expecting us."

The brightly colored Gummi ship careened effortlessly through the clouds, gliding through the soaring spires and sparkling towers, dozens of little hover cars zipping everywhere like metal insects. "People are returning," Kairi laughed, wiping a tear of joy from her eyes. "Life begins anew." Children walking along the balconies stopped and waved at them as they flew past, and Kairi waved back. "This is awesome!" Suddenly, she frowned. "In fact, it's so awesome, what in the worlds could be wrong? Do you think the King might have made a mistake?"

"King Mickey _never_ makes mistakes," Riku declared fiercely. "If there's something wrong, it's a lot deeper than it appears. He probably needs our help taking it out before it can do any damage."

"Makes sense to me," Sora agreed. He leaned over Riku's shoulder, unable to take his eyes off the inspiring vistas. "Over there! Look!" He pointed at a landing platform jutting out of the impressive central citadel with its iconic heart emblem emblazoned on the front. There standing on it were two people, a tall, dark-haired man with a scar across his nose, and a pretty girl in a red dress, her long hair held in a bow. Sora smiled and cheered. "Leon and Aerith! Yes!"

The ship had hardly landed and Sora scrambled down the ramp. "Welcome back," Leon greeted in his usual laconic tone, clasping hands with Sora. At hip hung an unusual weapon, part sword, part gun, appropriately enough named a gunblade. Kairi and Aerith hugged each other excitedly, but Riku played 'Mr. Cool', brushing his hair back and giving everyone a simple nod. "Hope the trip wasn't too bumpy for you. Cid's new autopilots can be a real pain in the neck sometimes. Despite his assurances, nothing will ever replace a flesh and blood pilot."

"You can say that again," Riku agreed. "Nice job that you've done with the place."

"Thanks," Aerith said in her sweet, kind voice. "But none it is possible without you guys."

"This is great!" Sora declared, unable to stop grinning. He gestured around excitedly at the incredible city; before it had been aw-inspiring, yet also fearsome; now it was simply beautiful, a magnificent place to live and work and love. "Radiant Garden looks, well, radiant, I guess!" He rubbed his head sheepishly. "So, what's up? Everything looks in order. No Heartless, I hope."

"No Heartless _here_," Leon replied cautiously. "Elsewhere on the planet is another matter altogether. We've managed to clear them out of the citadel and surrounding lands, but on the far side of the planet they've become firmly entrenched."

"So you need our help kicking them out right?" Riku concluded. "No problem. We'll be done in time for lunch. Speaking of which, I'm starving."

"All in good time," Leon said, offering up an uncharacteristic chuckle; no one was immune to Riku's playful nature, not even the ever-sullen Leon. Cloud Strife might prove a challenge though. "Actually, the reason the King asked you here was for a slightly different reason, but no less important. Maybe even more so. Come on, I'll show you." He led the three into the citadel and across a high bridge overlooking a vast courtyard. Their eyes almost popped out in shock at the giant metal statue being constructed in the middle of the courtyard, showing the three of them plus their old friends Donald, Goofy and King Mickey, all standing together in triumph over the Heartless and Organization XIII. Even Riku had to blush in embarrassment.

"You made a statue to us?" Sora gasped.

"Not me," Leon said. "I always figured a 'thank you' and a hearty handshake would suffice. That's all thanks to our great leader and chief, the always-squandering President Laguna. He means well, but frankly, he's something of a goofball."

"Leon, you shouldn't talk that way about-" Aerith chided gently. Leon glared at her sharply, and she cleared her throat. "Our elected leader." Leon inhaled deeply and nodded.

They took an elevator down to the courtyard, where they discovered literally dozens of young men, women and other exotic creatures from all over the universe. They were clustered in groups, each one practicing a different technique; martial arts, sharp-shooting, spell-casting, and on and on. "What's all this?" Kairi asked. "It looks a little like a school."

"That's because it is a school," Leon explained, leading them through the courtyard. Each group of children they passed would stop and gawk at them in awe, obviously never expecting to see the great saviors of the worlds walking amongst them like normal people. "Welcome to Great Academy of Radiant Garden. These young men and women you see are the SeeDs of Garden, training to become elite fighters in the war with the Darkness. When they graduate, they'll go out to all the worlds they came from, to plant the seeds of light and life, therefore making sure the Darkness will never find root again."

"Clever," Riku commented wryly. "You come up with that all by yourself?"

"Actually, I did," Aerith interjected, smiling sweetly.

"I'm not surprised," Riku chuckled.

Leon led them to one particular group of children doing jumping jacks. The woman instructing them was a tall, beautiful blonde, her hair hanging down her face in lovely bangs. Coiled around her waist was a long, dangerous looking whip, and Sora wondered if she used it to keep the children in line. "Guys, allow me to introduce a good friend of mine," Leon said. The woman turned and smiled, gesturing for the children to take a break. "This is Quistis. She used to be _my_ instructor. And this is Sora, Kairi, and the annoying one is Riku."

"Ha, ha, very funny," Riku scoffed.

"You taught Leon?" Sora gasped.

"Everything he knows," Quistis answered.

"Whoa," all three gasped, greatly impressed.

"So _you're_ the fabled Keyblade Bearer, hmm?" Quistis intoned bending over to smile at Sora. He gulped nervously, his cheeks turning bright red. "You're a little shorter than I expected." He frowned curtly. "But still, pretty cute." He grinned sheepishly. Kairi sniffed belligerently and crossed her arms. Quistis noticed this and laughed. "Don't worry, honey, I'm not going to steal you're boyfriend."

"B-Boyfriend!" Sora and Kairi exclaimed together. "Oh, he's not-I'm not-I didn't-what do you mean by boyfriend?" Riku rolled his eyes but smiled.

"Ah, they don't look like so much!" Up stomped a huge mountain of a man dressed in heavy armor. He had a long face that must have been stuck in a perpetual frown. "The fabled heroes who conquered the Heartless, eh? Probably wouldn't last one round in kick the can let alone a pitched battle with a thousand Heartless!" He leaned down into Sora's face, then into Riku's.

"Woo, care for a breath mint?" Riku asked, waving his hand before his nose. The big man growled angrily, looking ready to clean the impudent young man's clock.

Leon quickly intervened, stepping between the two. "And this here tower of terror who so politely introduced himself is Captain Johnny Happy-pants," Leon sighed. "Oops, I mean, Captain Adelbert."

"Leon!" Quistis gasped. "Did you just make a joke? Break out the champagne, it's time to celebrate." He glared at her sullenly, but then they both said, "Whatever," simultaneously.

Quistis laughed. "Still the same old Leon! I know you better than you know yourself!"

"Ah," Adelbert growled, waving his hand dismissively. "You were a punk then and you're a punk now, Leon. Always will be. If I had trained you, you wouldn't have been all mollycoddled. I'm have drilled hard discipline into you!"

"Would have drilled something hard into him undoubtedly," Riku muttered under his breath.

"Hey! What was that?" Adelbert growled. He grabbed Riku's collar and gave him a rough shake. "I heard that, you cheap punk! Down and twenty, punk! Now!" He pulled out a little whistle and blew it right in Riku's face. Riku goggled in disbelief. "I said GIVE ME TWENTY NOW! 1! 2! 3!" Before Riku knew what he was doing, he was on his hands doing push-ups. "Faster! Faster! I haven't got all day, Nancy!"

"We'll let them alone a moment," Leon suggested, smiling wryly. "Adelbert's in his glory. Come on. There's still a lot to show you." Sora started after Leon immediately, but Kairi held back a moment, for a young girl was running up to meet her.

"Selphie?" she gasped in surprise.

"Kairi!" the enthusiastic young girl squealed, taking Kairi's hands and spinning her around until they were both dizzy. Selphie now wore a blue uniform that most of the students were wearing; she was a cadet? "I can't believe you're here! And is that a statue of YOU? What's up with that? Oh, wow, is this ever exciting!" She let Kairi go and clapped her hands. "Are you training to become a SeeD, too? This is great! Ooh, I want to stay and talk, but I don't want to keep Miss Terra waiting now! Hey, guess what? Tidus and Wakka are here too! We're all here!"

"Yes, very interesting," Kairi whispered, wondering what it could all mean.

Meanwhile, Leon and Aerith led Sora further on into the citadel. Everywhere there were children and teachers at work, dressed in their blue uniforms with yellow or white shirts. "Is King Mickey here?" Sora asked.

"He was supposed to be," Leon replied. "But I haven't heard from him in awhile."

"Do you think something may have happened?" Sora asked worriedly.

"The king can take care of himself," Leon assured him. "If he needs help, he'd have contacted us by now."

"That's Leon-speak for how really worried he is," Aerith giggled. Leon just rolled his eyes. Sora rubbed his jaw; if the king was supposed to be here but wasn't, something must have happened. Could Donald and Goofy be in trouble too? He didn't like thinking about the possibilities right now.

Down on the floor a pair of legs stuck out of a computer console. "Dang it!" the person grumbled, sliding out from underneath, his shirt covered in grease. Sora recognized him immediately - good old Cid, the cantankerous but extremely skilled mechanic whom he had first met so many years ago on that fateful night he fell into Traverse Town. "Ah, there you are Leon. Well, well, if it isn't everyone's favorite Messiah, or something like that. How you doing kid?" He stood up and wiped his hand on his pants before shaking Sora's hand. "Man, it's a trial and a chore keeping this place up to code! That idiot President's ready and willing to spend money on ridiculous statues and vanity projects, but try and get some money to repair the Internet and no way Jose! Hey, Leon, seeing how you're the Pres-"

"I'm working on it," Leon replied tersely. "All right?"

Cid shrugged. "Okay, okay, no need getting your underpants in a bind, I hear you." He stuck two fingers in his mouth and whistled sharply. "Yo! VINCENT! Come on down!"

Sora looked up, quite startled at the sight of a small, spherically shaped brown and gray robot with two big eyes come floating down out of the ceiling. "My diagnostics are complete, Cid," he said in a crisp, clear voice with a pleasing inflection. "This should hold for the next few days until those supplies arrive. Ah, Leon, Ms. Aerith, I'm glad to see you here. And is this a new recruit? No, wait a moment." He hovered in front of Sora, a red scanner running across the boy's face. "Ah, this is Sora. A pleasure and an honor to meet you. I am VINCENT, Cid's assistant. If you ever need anything, please, do not hesitate to ask." A robotic arm extended from his side and shook Sora's hand.

"Pleased to meet you too, VINCENT," Sora replied with a smile.

"Yeah, this little flying rust bucket helps me reach them hard-to-reach places," Cid chuckled, rubbing the robot's flat head. "Named him after an old friend of mine, but this guy's way friendlier and talkative than he was."

"So, I've heard," VINCENT replied. "Well, if you don't need me anymore, I'm going to go charge up. Leon, Ms. Aerith, Master Sora, good day for now." He floated off down the hall, zipping around corners and over heads with surprising ease. Sora wanted to follow him, to see what else he could do.

They left the busy hallways behind and entered the relative calm of the cafeteria, at least a hundred or so students seated for meals or standing in line. Behind the counter stood a huge, muscular man with a large jaw, long hair, wearing a purple tunic and a chef's hat on his head. "Yeah, get your hot dogs here, come on get your hot dogs!" he called out in a deep voice. "C'mon, I know you want 'em! Kronk's specialty, hot dogs! I have 'em, you want 'em, you crave 'em, let ol' Kronk fill your needs!"

"I would like a hot dog please!" Sora said eagerly.

"Sorry, hot dogs for faculty and students only, yep," Kronk replied sternly. "No can do. Them's the rules, love 'em or leave 'em." He pointed his thumb at the sign behind him. "We got growing SeeDs here, need to keep 'em nourished. Get it? Growing SeeDs? Get it, huh, get it? SeeDs growing, growing SeeDs? What was I talking about again? Who are you? You look familiar, like I've seen your face etched in a giant metal sculpture - or maybe it was a mound of mashed potatoes."

"What?" Sora demanded. "You're making this big show in front of me, then say I can't have any? What's the big idea?"

"What what and the what what?" Kronk replied stupidly. Suddenly, a little angel appeared on his shoulder. "Egad, my shoulder angel! Crud, now what did I do? It's about the 'secret sauce' I put in the egg salad the other day, isn't it?"

"No, no, although thanks for reminding me about that," the angel said in a squeaky voice. "You really did mislead that kid with your marketing campaign," the angel, an exact duplicate of the humongous Kronk, chided. He clucked his tongue disparagingly. "You should give him a hot dog and say you're sorry."

A burst of flame and suddenly a Kronk demon appeared on the other shoulder. "Ah, screw the kid. Can't he read the sign? Ain't your fault he doesn't fit your major demographic. If he wants a hot dog, he can enroll with the rest of 'em. Besides, you know the rules - missing food is taken out of your paycheck!"

"I get a..._paycheck_?" Kronk gasped in surprise. "Holy guacamole! No way. Next you're gonna tell me I'm really from an animated movie set in an ancient Mesoamerican civilization and somehow got stuck in some weird fantasy crossover with popular video game characters. I need to sit down. No, wait - no I don't."

Sora, Leon and Aerith stared at Kronk as he carried on a conversation with his empty shoulders. "Is everyone here sort of on the weird side?" Sora asked nervously.

"Hey, Kronk, it's okay, put it on my tab," Leon ordered. The angel and demon vanished in a puff of smoke.

"One 'Kronk' dog coming up, my specialty!" Kronk said, flipping a hot dog into a bun and layering mustard, relish and onions on generously. Sora licked his lips and ate it all up. "Oh, yeah, feel the burn. Might wanna swig a bottle of the ol' Pepto pink stuff after this. Heartburn City, population - you!"

Suddenly, a young boy about Sora's age came rushing in, floating on a hover-board. He had wild blonde hair and a ponytail. He jumped off the board and kicked it up, catching it in his hands. "Yo, Kronk, my man! Hot dog me, please!"

"Yo, Zell, what is up, my man?" Kronk replied, giving the boy a high five. "Sorry, little buddy, no can do, you are just plain tough out of luck. The last hot dog went to him." He pointed at Sora. He leaned over and whispered conspiratorially in Zell's ear. "And he ain't a student or staff to boot. I smell a rat, a big Commie rat."

"Dude, that is so not cool," Zell sighed, smacking his fist into his hands. He had some nasty looking gloves on, probably capable of smashing concrete into powder. Sora swallowed nervously.

"Zell!" Leon yelled. Zell stood up straight and saluted. "You no the rules - no hover-boards indoors." Zell winced and slapped his forehead miserably. Kronk winced sympathetically as well. "Report to the disciplinary committee at once, young man."

"Right-o, boss," Zell sighed, slumping dejectedly. He dragged his board along behind him.

"Wait, don't punish him," Sora said. Zell looked up hopefully. "I could probably use him. As a guide, you know? You can't keep me forever, you must have important things to look to, right?"

Leon frowned slightly. "He is right, you know," Aerith interjected, and cast Zell a sideways wink. "Besides, it'd teach Zell a lesson in responsibility. Give him a second chance. We need to get to that conference as soon as possible anyway."

"I don't know," Leon intoned. Zell fell to his knees, gritting his teeth and clasping his hands together fervently. "Oh, knock it off, you ham. All right, all right. But stow that hover-board away before someone gets hurt, got it?"

"You can count on me!" Zell yelled, and saluted again. "Yes! Dodged a bullet there! Thanks, man. Guess you're okay after all. Whoa! You're that Sora dude aren't you? Of course you are! You look just like the statue! Dude, you are so way cool in my book!"

Sora covered his face, cheeks turning red with embarrassment. "I'm beginning to really, really hate that statue," he sighed.

Kronk grew puzzled, scratching his jaw. "Wait a minute! If he's so sora, shouldn't he be in the infirmary?" he asked.

"Shut up, Kronk," everyone said.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

A gathering of likeminded individuals sat around the reflecting pool, watching Sora as he reunited with Riku and Kairi. "The boy has...exceptional skills," the purple-dressed man in the wheelchair intoned. He turned it around to face the room. "We should make use of them. The time to strike is now. Our plans have ripened to fruition. We shall learn from the mistakes of Maleficent and Xehanort. Subterfuge is the _key_ here, pardon the pun."

"Everything is proceeding perfectly according to my plans," the tall, pale woman with the crown of ice intoned imperiously, and clutched a long wand in her right hand, a perfect crystal. Behind her followed her ever-faithful servant, a small but dangerous dwarf with a long beard nasty whip, and a large, ominous red robot, seeing all but saying nothing, completely emotionless save the slender red line through which it saw everything. "All that remains now is to take Kingdom Hearts. As long as Maleficent has control of World That Never Was, she has the upper hand. By pitting him against her, already enemies, they'll wipe each other out, paving the way for our conquest. The pieces are in place - it is time now for the Queen to make her move against the Knight!"

"I agree," the man in purple whispered. "No longer will I be broken, but I'll be the one doing the breaking."

"Frankly, I'm abso-freaking-lutely fed up with Maleficent!" the flame-haired god of death declared bitterly. "Twice now I've cast my lot with her, and twice now I've been royally burned - and for a guy like me, that ain't something you get used to! You may be one icy lady, but I'll be throwing in with you from now on, Jadis! After all, when fire and ice come together, there's sure to be steam, rowr-rowr!"

"The _Nautilus_ and her crew are entirely at your disposal, great Queen," the dread captain of the seven seas declared. He was an impeccably dressed, handsome man with dark hair and skin. "We shall ply the space ways and stop all traffic and commerce. The people will have no choice but to turn to you in the end."

"I have assurances from the Vogon high command that all is ready," the blubbery, bloated, nauseating green alien gurgled. "But first we must see to this hyperspace bypass. It shall facilitate the massive troop movements you have ordered. In fact, I've written a special poem just for the occasion. _How We Conquered the Galaxy, and Made Everyone Very Upset About It._"

"Oh, cripes, not with the poetry!" the god of death moaned. "It's enough to make me kill myself all over again."

"I'm just in this for one thing," the skinny duck in yellow sneered. He wore an orange hat with a wide brim, and a black mask over his eyes. "The fun that'll come with all the death, chaos and destruction! Ha! Gimme a bazooka and a room full of them silly school kids and I'll give them a field trip they'll never forget!"

"All I desire is revenge," the demon-winged angel of the night hissed. "You can have your Kingdom Hearts, but Goliath and his clan shall be mine."

"And as long as we're well paid, you can count on me and my boys to do the grunt work," the hefty dog lady declared. Behind her, three of her boys grinned and rubbed their hands together greedily. "First up, we'll rob that kid of his Keyblade!"

The white queen threw back her head and laughed at such presuming arrogance. "Easier said than done! Leave the Keyblade and its bearer to me. I'll have plenty of work for you shortly." She waved her hand over the shimmering pool and the scene shifted to a group of lab coat wearing men and women working studiously at banks of computers. "Ethan Rom!"

A tall, lanky man with a bad haircut looked up and jumped in surprise. "Oh! Uh, it's you. Uh, 'your Majesty'." He didn't look very thrilled having to say that. "Everything's coming along swell here. The Heartless we're working with are showing signs of adapting under the different treatments we use. One small problem; we've hit a snag here on the Island."

"I don't care about 'snags', only results!" the white queen snarled. Rom looked ready to pee his pants. "Eliminate anyone and anything that comes between you and success. You wouldn't want me to pay another visit there, would you, Mr. Rom?"

He shook his head quickly. "No, uh, your Majesty."

"Very good." She smiled, supremely satisfied. "That is all then." The water shimmered and Rom vanished. "Now, I shall proceed to Radiant Garden. The rest of you return to your worlds and prepare for the final conquest. We shall all become gods!" She laughed loudly, gripping her magic wand tightly.

High above them a little brown robot, all mangled and beat-up to look like a floating, smashed-up soda can, watched them and began to worry.

"That Adelbert guy is NUTS," Riku complained to Kairi. "He makes do like a hundred pushups, then puts me through this insane obstacle course. After facing Organization XIII, I thought I was prepared for anything. Guess again!"

"I can't get over the fact that our friends from Destiny Island are here," Kairi said. "Tidus, Wakka, Selphie - why are they here? And training to become SeeDs?"

"And anyone notice how no one seems willing to discuss the whereabouts of the King?" Sora added. "Or Donald and Goofy for that matter? I don't like it. Leon's always been a little closed, but this isn't like him at all." He looked up and gasped, rubbing his eyes in disbelief. "No freaking way!"

"Well, well, well, what have we here?" Up strode three teens, one a slender boy with blonde hair, the other a big guy with dark skin, and the third an albino girl with a sullen disposition. The leader wore a long, brown trench coat and on his hip was slung a black gunblade, similar but not exactly like Leon's. "I remember you! That fool who thought he could beat me at Struggle back in Twilight Town, huh? What was your name again? Sorry, as in, 'sorry you beat my butt'?" He chuckled meanly.

"Seifer, Rai and Fuu," Sora growled. "What are you doing here?"

"Hey!" Rai interrupted angrily. He stood head and shoulders above everyone, and wasn't afraid to show off. "We should be the one's asking you, ya know? We're the disciplinary committee around here, ya know? Me, Fuu and Seifer are in charge of making sure everyone behaves and follows the rules, and to make sure everyone's where they're supposed to be even if they don't like it, ya know? And something tells me you ain't supposed to be here, ya know?"

"OBEY," Fuu insisted in her monotone, single-word delivery. "LEAVE."

"In case you didn't notice that big statue out there, it so happens that us," Riku replied, stepping between Sora and Seifer. "We're heroes around here. We can go where we like, do what we like, without punks like you butting in."

"I knew there was a reason I thought that statue was so darn ugly," Seifer scoffed. "Tear it down and put up a Struggle Pit, that's what they should do!"

"Thereby allowing you more opportunities to have your butt handed to you, I see," Riku replied.

"BIG MISTAKE," Fuu sneered.

Seifer looked ready to whip out that gunblade of his when a massive explosion went off close by. In the twinkle of an eye, the Keyblade appeared in Sora's hand, responding instantly to the mental command, and similarly so did Riku's. The 'disciplinary committee' suddenly lost a lot of it's nerve and backed away. A column of smoke rose from a tower in the corner of the courtyard, and faculty and students ran out of it, coughing violently. "Heartless?" Sora asked, ready to fight.

"Maleficent?" Riku added.

"Organization XIII?" Kairi gasped.

Seifer laughed suddenly. "Heartless? Maleficent? Organization XIII? In your dreams, you losers!" He curled his lip and sneered. "It's just that idiot, absent-minded Professor Brainard, that's all. C'mon, you two, let's go find someone to discipline. That chicken-wuss Zell ought to be close by." He snapped his fingers and Rai and Fuu followed after him.

Sora looked at his friends, and they could only shrug helplessly. "Well, let's go find out what happened!" Kairi yelled, and took off towards the tower. Riku and Sora's Keyblades vanished and they took after her.

Inside was a huge mess, machinery piled everywhere. In one corner of the destroyed laboratory stood a tall, handsome man wearing goggles and an apron over his nice suit. However, his suit, goggles, apron, face and hair were all stained black with soot, and his hair stood on end like a porcupine. He wrote on a chalkboard, apparently oblivious to the disaster around him. "Oh, I see! It should be a _less than_ sign! Ned, you can really take the prize sometimes!" He erased the and replaced it with a . "There, let's see how that works." He took off his goggles; the skin around his eyes starkly white against the black soot all over his face, and for the first time noticed Sora, Kairi and Riku. "Oh! Hello! New students? No, that can't be right, where are your uniforms? Hmm, where have I seen your faces before? Oh, no matter, no matter, come in, come in! Please! You're just in time for me to show you my greatest discovery!" Sora looked at Riku who looked at Kairi, all three amazed at how patently oblivious to the situation he was, but for the moment they decided it best to humor him. "Come in, come in! You won't believe your eyes!" he exclaimed.

"I'm Sora," he introduced himself.

"No need to be sorry, son, I don't mind," Professor Brainard said. He picked up a large metal canister and began unsealing the lid. Billowy white clouds poured over the edge, and he used special tongs to pull out what was inside. "This will blow your mind."

"Sort of like you blew your laboratory?" Riku asked incredulously.

"Excellent analogy, son!" the professor declared, slapping Riku's shoulder. "Hang on, now, and watch!" He unscrewed the lid of the jaw and poured a thick, green liquid out on the table. Kairi stuck out her tongue in disgust. "Don't worry, it's completely safe and non-toxic. Let it warm up a little bit shall we?" He nudged it gently and it scooted away. Kairi shrieked in surprise. "Now here comes the 'cool' part, if you don't mind me using some of your 'hip' lingo!"

"We do," Riku chuckled.

Professor Brainard rolled the ooze into a ball, and surprisingly it held firm. He let it drop and it bounced. It fell and bounced again. "So?" Sora asked.

"Waaatch," Brainard insisted. They sighed gently and watched the ball fall, then bounce, fall, then bounce, fall, then bounce, and then it struck them - it was bouncing _higher_ with each bounce! In five seconds it was almost touching the ceiling, and in six seconds it did touch the ceiling - and away it went!

"YIKES!" Sora yelped, jumping aside as it ricocheted close to his head. "Whoa! What is that?"

The professor made more balls and sent them bouncing everywhere, none of them slowing down but instead picking up speed, slowly at first, but then increasing exponentially. "It's amazing! My newest and greatest creation! I call it - FLUBBER. A portmanteau of 'flying' and 'rubber'. Sometimes I'm so clever, I scare myself. Amazing! The kinetic energy of this substance increases as it moves! Unheard of! The applications are limitless!"

"Speaking of applications, you might want to stay filling some out for a new job!" There was Leon, swatting the balls aside with his gunblade as he stormed into the ruined laboratory. "Brainard! I warned you about making unauthorized experiments!"

"Please, you make it sound as if I'm Xehanort himself," Brainard sighed, snatching the balls out of the air as they flew past him and stowing them back into the container. "Everything is completely under control."

"You destroyed a laboratory!"

"Aside from that, everything is under control," Brainard continued, completely oblivious to the situation. "Think of what can be done! No more worrying about those pesky, hard-to-reach Heartless, like those buzz bombers and sky bats or what have you! The SeeDs can just jump up and get them without any problems whatsoever!"

"No more, Brainard," Leon said sternly. "You're a top scientist and the students love you, but you spend too much time with this stuff. I want you to curb your experimentation right now, understand?" Brainard nodded calmly. Leon turned to Sora, Riku and Kairi. "Anyway, I came for you three. Will you follow me up to the command center? There's some stuff there I think might interest you."

"Don't worry, Squall, I won't forget your concerns," Brainard sighed, wiping off his chalkboard.

"That's _Leon_," he growled angrily. "Don't forget - ah, why do I even bother?"

Leon was quiet, even for him, all the way to the command center located in the very heart of the citadel. A massive room especially set aside just for the purpose of monitoring the entire planet, apparently everyone was here. "Hey! Leon said you losers were back! Welcome to the madness!"

"Hey, Yuffie," Sora said. The cheerful little ninja shot him a big thumbs up.

"That's GREAT NINJA YUFFIE to you, buddy!" she warned, pointing her finger up at his nose. "So, did you and Leon-"

"We'll get to that later," Leon interjected quickly. "They've had a busy flight." Yuffie looked at him as if he was insane. "Just drop it for now, okay?"

"Fine, whatever!" Yuffie muttered and skipped away.

Sora looked around the room; there was sweet Aerith, super-strong Tifa and wise, old Merlin; Cid and his new robot VINCENT, Quistis and Adelbert, and a whole host of new people he had never met before. Much of the sophisticated computer equipment that had been locked down below in the bowels of Ansem the Wise's laboratory had been moved up here, thoroughly renovated for their personal use. He wondered if Tron might be here as well, hiding away inside one of these computers. There was even a big, red dog creature with a fiery tail sitting calmly in the center of the room. "Hi, Pooch," Sora said cheerfully.

"My name is Red XIII, thank you very much," he replied. Sora jumped back in surprise. "Don't even try patting my head, buddy."

"Ah! Sora!" Merlin clapped his hands, stepping down to greet them. "Riku and Kairi as well! All together, how excellent indeed." He took off his glasses and rubbed them off with his blue tunic. "How do you like all our renovations, eh? We've certainly been keeping busy since you left."

"It's wonderful," Sora said. "But...we're still a little confused as to why we're here, unless it's just for you guys to show off."

"What's this?" Merlin scoffed, flabbergasted by this news. "Didn't Leon tell you yet?" He looked at Leon, who steadily walked away to talk to Tifa and Aerith.

"Hold on, we're receiving an emergency distress call from the Forbidden Zone!" Tifa yelled, jumping behind a computer monitor and grabbing a pair of earphones. "Heading 1 Mark O-7-C. It's a transport. It's under attack by Heartless. I'll patch the call through the speakers."

"Don't lose them," Leon ordered, standing behind Tifa and staring at the monitor. Riku, Sora and Kairi ran up behind him to watch. "Who is this?"

"Dr. Aki Ross requesting SeeD assistance immediately!" a woman yelled through the speaker. "I was out conducting routine research when my vessel came under attack from a giant Heartless! I'm in desperate need of assistance immediately!"

Tifa threw off her headphones. "Aki Ross! Honestly, she's always getting herself into trouble!"

"Can't blame her, seeing how she's about the most experienced scientist studying Heartless right now," Leon intoned gently. He tapped the call switch. "Dr. Ross, this is Leon, head of SeeD. We read you loud and clear and are dispatching a SeeD rescue party to your aid immediately. Hang on out there, okay?"

"I'll try, but this sucker's as fast as he is big! Don't keep me waiting!"

"Scramble a rescue team now," Leon ordered Tifa. "Bring Zell, Lulu and get us a sharpshooter, Irvine perhaps."

"On it!" she assured him and she sprinted off, disappearing in a flash.

Leon turned to Sora, Riku and Kairi. "You three up for tagging along?" he asked with a small smile.

"You bet!" Sora and Riku exclaimed instantly, simply itching for some real action and no more standing around looking pretty. Kairi shook her head and sighed; boys may grow up, but they never really mature.

"Great, because we'll probably need your help," Leon said. He turned to Quistis. "Prep the Ragnarok for flight!"

"At last, some action," Riku sighed, brushing his hair out of his eyes. "And it sounds like it's gonna be a big one too. Hope there's enough to go around."

"Ah, I'll save you a piece," Sora assured him sarcastically. "Maybe the big toe."

"Get it together, you two!" Kairi interrupted crossly. They looked at her oddly. "This is serious, and you treat it like it's a game! Lives are at stake here, remember?"

"We were just kidding Kairi, jeez," Riku said. "What's your problem? Why so serious all of a sudden?"

"In case you care to remember, this is my home, where I was born," Kairi replied sadly. "I was hoping that by now the darkness would finally be driven away and defeated, but I guess not." She hugged herself helplessly. "I suppose it will never really be vanquished, will it? It's just a part that will always be there, no matter how much I wish otherwise."

Sora was shocked, little realizing how much all this meant to Kairi. For him, he had taken it for granted; Heartless were here, he had to defeat them as he was the Keyblade bearer, but for Kairi, there was so much at stake. It hurt him to see her this upset. "I promise you, Kairi, I won't rest until all the Heartless has been driven from Radiant Garden for good," he declared fiercely. He cupped her chin and pulled her face up to gaze into her eyes, wiping away her tears. "I won't fail you again."

"Hey!" Leon yelled. "You coming or not?"

"We're coming right now," Riku replied. He tugged Kairi and Sora urgently. "We better get moving." They nodded understandingly and followed after.

As they ran for the landing platform, they bumped into Kronk coming in. "Oh, hey! Leon, I've been looking for you! There's a little problem, see, with our catering service, and I was hoping you could straighten it out for me."

"We're a little busy, Kronk, some other time perhaps," Leon intoned, pushing past the big galoot.

"Now you see, this is important! We're talking about healthy meals for a couple hundred growing kids, essential nutrients and vitamins and all that jazz! I mean, I ordered five hundred pounds of turkey tofu, but instead they end up mailing me five hundred cans of Turkish delight! Not that I'm complaining, small, square morsels of succulent chocolate and caramel wrapped in a crispy, powdered sugar biscuit, oh God I gotta have one now, but still, it's the principal of the thing!"

"Don't worry about it!" Leon called back, and disappeared around the corner.

Kronk rubbed his jaw thoughtfully. "They don't even have any turkey in them. Sort of the direct opposite of poultry. Although those little silver canisters with that wintry, snowflake motif they come in certainly make for delightful decorative keepsakes for at home and in the office. I wonder what they taste like? Hmm?"

The Ragnarok was anchored to the side of the citadel, a massive red ship that resembled a mighty dragon. "All aboard who's going aboard!" Tifa shouted, hopping into the co-pilot's seat. Flying the impressive shuttle was a tall, humanoid duck wearing a flight cap and goggles.

"Thank you for flying Launchpad McQuack airways!" he declared cheerfully. "Always a pleasure to have you aboard. Please, keep your hands and arms and heads inside the plane at all times, and remember, your seats double as a floatational device!"

Three young SeeD cadets were also there; Zell, whom they had met, and two others. One was a very pale girl with black hair and unusual purple lips. She carried a stuffed Moogle with her, and seemed incapable of smiling. The other was a young man, perhaps a year older than Riku, wearing a cowboy hat and carrying a large rifle. He smiled and nodded politely, giving Kairi the lazy eye, much to Sora's consternation. "Dudes!" Zell exclaimed, clasping Sora so excitedly, he popped his back by accident. "You made it! Cool! Off on a mission! Lemme introduce to you Lulu, whose specialty is black magic, and Irvine, who's a sharpshooter."

"Pleased to meet you," Irvine said in a pleasant drawl. He took Kairi's hand and kissed it.

"Yeah, right," Sora growled, stepping forward quickly.

"Ooh, easy tiger, I'm cool," Irvine assured him. "Won't go messing with your girlfriend now." Sora blushed embarrassedly, but Kairi simply smiled sweetly. "We're all on the same team, remember?"

"Don't worry, he does that with all the girls," Lulu informed them. "Although it never gets him anywhere."

"Doesn't get me anywhere with ice princess here," Irvine said. "She's so chilly, Satan himself gets the shivers around her."

"Can it, Irvine, before I come back there and deck you one! Get in place!" Tifa yelled hotly. "We're coming up on those coordinates! Look out the window, you're gonna see it! Holy mother - it is huge!"

What resembled a mammoth worm rising and falling out of the sand filled the horizon. The easily recognizable emblem of an Ansem-made Heartless glowed on its back, the remaining linage of a once proud but terrible man, and its eyes were vacant yellow dots in a field of black. All over scurried dozens of much tinier Heartless, obviously spawned in its wake as it roamed the land. Close by was a little bike, racing at high speed to get away from it and kicking up a cloud of dust in the process, a solitary woman riding it. As she drove off, the worm turned around and moved closer towards her, roaring hungrily. "That must be Dr. Ross's bike!" Launchpad McQuack exclaimed. "All right, ladies and germs, everyone strap yourselves in for another smoooooth Launchpad landing!"

"NO!" Tifa screamed in horror. "J-Just - keep circling! We'll jump out and ambush it!" Launchpad shrugged, perhaps a little miffed at not getting to land the plane in his own peculiar style, and Tifa moved to the kids. "All right, everyone ready? Just like we've been trained! After Leon, now!"

Leon leapt from the swiftly moving Ragnarok, his gunblade Revolver at the ready, and fell quickly to the sand. Sora, Riku and Kairi were right behind, Keyblades at the ready, and the moment they touched ground Sora lashed out, automatically nullifying three smaller Heartless, releasing their hearts back to Kingdom Hearts. Not long ago, the forces of Organization XIII tried using this power of good for their own evil means, but they were gone now; no longer did Sora feel any compunction against using the Keyblade now. In fact, it felt kind of good to be at it again. "Hey, keep up, Sora!" Riku called back. "I've already got five!"

"I'll beat you both before we're done!" Kairi laughed, slicing through the Heartless. Although she couldn't summon a Keyblade like Sora and Riku, she could still use one to devastating effect. Hers was the Oathkeeper, light but strong. "But we still have that big one to worry about!"

The three SeeD cadets held their own as well. Zell was a true fighter, using only his fist coupled with the weighted gloves he wore to beat up the Heartless. Lulu was definitely a magician, and a powerfully capable one at that. Irvine held back, not out of fear, but to get a better shot. Sora could see right away Zell was immensely strong, perhaps second only to Tifa in the group. "Hey! Get me to that worm now!" he shouted.

"On it, dude!" Zell yelled, grabbing Sora and hoisting him over his head. "One cannonball special, coming up! Up, up and away!" He hurtled Sora like a baseball, rocketing straight towards the massive Heartless.

Up close, the thing was impossibly huge, its head the size of a tower, and the bulk of its body underground to boot. This didn't phase Sora, but made his resolve even stronger. "I won't fail you, Kairi," he whispered as he nailed the worm right between the eyes with his Keyblade. It roared in protest and thrashed about, its tail causing small seismic shocks throughout the wasteland. Sora rolled aside before it could smash him in its wild throes. Quickly, he jumped on the back and ran along its spine for the head, fighting to keep his footing every step of the way. As soon as he reached the skull, he spun the Keyblade around and drove it straight down into the beast's cranium.

It howled helplessly, slowly dying away. Black smoke billowed around Sora and he jumped clear, watching as the entrapped heart appeared, flickering red for a moment, then soaring away to Kingdom Hearts. Riku and Kairi were upon him instantly, hugging him and cheering with him.

"Dudes!" Zell screamed, pumping his fists. "That was freaking amazing! Wait until I tell my Mom about this, she won't believe it for a second!"

The sand bike pulled up to them, and the rider dismounted, taking off her helmet to reveal a dark haired, beautiful woman. "Thanks, you got here just in time," she said. She looked at Sora. "I'm Dr. Aki Ross, and you must be Sora. Glad to meet you. I don't mean to pry like this, but is it true you were once a Heartless?"

Sora grinned sheepishly and rubbed his head. "Yeah, but that was awhile ago."

"Yet now here you are, back to yourself," she whispered. "Amazing. Listen, if you don't mind, I would like to run some tests-"

"Maybe _later_, Dr. Ross?" Leon suggested sharply. She smirked at him and nodded. "Thank you. Right now, we should rendezvous back at the citadel before we attract anymore Heartless..." He paused, looking up in the sky as a ship approached; it was not the Ragnarok. Leon's face grew visibly dark and angry, so much so that Sora was taken aback. Leon never got angry or happy, he just remained the same stoic, quiet hero, but this change was startling. "What's HE doing here?"

"Easy killer," Tifa warned, grabbing his arm. "Remember who you are - and who _he _is!" Leon calmed down slightly, adjusting his fur-trimmed leather collar. "That's more like it. Play cool, Mr. Cool."

The craft, one of many of the oblique, pollution-free hover-cars that populated the skies of Radiant Garden, landing and the side hatch opened up. It was maybe a little bigger than most cars, and sported the iconic emblem of Radiant Garden on the side. Out stepped an older man with long back hair, wearing a white shirt not tucked in his blue trousers. "That was freaking awesome!" he yelled, pumping both fists in the air. "Sora, right? Riku, right? Kairi, right? You guys were incredible! I saw the whole thing and man, was I impressed! Of course, finding a penny impresses me, but still, this is one for the record books! I mean, like what? You guys aren't even out of high school yet! I mean, jeez, when I was in high school, I routinely forget my way to the bathroom!"

"Uh, who are you?" Riku asked bluntly.

"Oh, duh!" He slapped his forehead and laughed. "Jeez, I get so carried away, I forget everything - protocols, formalities, et cetera, et cetera. Frankly, I'd do away with them altogether if not for little things like law and diplomacy. Where was I? Oh, yeah! I'm President Laguna! Welcome back to Radiant Garden, heroes of the Keyblade! Squall, you rascal, why didn't you call me the minute they got here? I'd have thrown a parade, called a holiday, given you the best darn rooms in the presidential palace! Man...This is cool! So, have you accepted yet?"

"Accepted...what?" Sora asked.

"What?" Laguna stammered. "You don't know? You mean this goofball didn't tell you yet?" He laughed loudly. "Squall, sometimes you take the prize!"

"It's 'Leon', sir," he corrected tersely. "And I was going to tell them, but I thought it best if perhaps King Mickey were here to-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, Mickey-Shmickey, yada-yada-yada," Laguna sighed, working his fingers and thumb like a mouth to mock Leon. "Mickey ain't the President of Radiant Garden, Squall, I am. I call the shots." He looked at the trio and smiled. "I want you guys to join SeeD!"

Riku scoffed. "Thanks, but no thanks. I think we've progressed well past the point of needing any training-"

"NO!" Laguna laughed. "Not as cadets, silly boy! As teachers! As leaders! As the ones calling the shots, not the ones taking the orders! Effecting real change here, and throughout all the other worlds! That's what I want out of you! I want you to take the reins of destiny and change the course of history! Or something."

"Sir," Leon sighed. "With all due respect-"

"This is killing you, isn't it?" Laguna chuckled.

Leon scowled. "With all due respect, they're still just kids. Great kids, smart kids, kids who've been through more and accomplished more than grown-ups three times their age, but they're kids, and they deserve a break. A chance to finally go home and not be affected by this anymore."

"Don't give me any grief, Squall," Laguna intoned gently.

"And stop calling me 'Squall'!" Leon thundered. "It's 'Leon'!"

"I'm not calling you what you like, I'm calling you what you are," Laguna explained. "And furthermore-" Leon walked past him and headed for the ship. "Excuse me! Young man, I'm not through talking to you!" He looked at everyone and chuckled nervously. "Kids these days. Go figure."

Leon was about to board the ship, but suddenly turned around and started running off. "Leon!" Tifa yelled. "Where are you going?" He didn't answer but gestured for them to follow. They looked to where he pointed and saw two figures walking out of the desert towards them, about from where the Heartless sandworm had been. Tifa's eyes went wide and she let out an audible gasp. "Oh my God...CLOUD!"

"Cloud?" Sora echoed excitedly. He took off after Tifa and Leon; in fact, Tifa was so fast, she quickly overtook Leon to reach Cloud before anyone else.

He looked as if he had been through hell and back ten times over. As soon as Tifa touched him, he collapsed into her arms, almost unconscious. "Cloud!" she begged, shaking him gently. "Cloud, answer me! It's me, it's Tifa, sweetie!"

"C'mon, Cloud, answer us, buddy," Leon said, ripping off Cloud's shirt. "Don't leave us like this! Zell, get some water!"

Cloud's companion looked on worriedly. He was, in fact, a short, skinny, green frog with a funny collar around his neck. His arms and legs were as thin as twigs. "Will he be okay?" he asked, although he didn't look too good himself. "That young man saved my life not less than five minutes ago. I guess I sorta have a vested interest in him."

"Who are you?" Sora asked the frog.

"Oh, yes! Hi-ho, Kermit the Frog, at your service. And who might you be?"

"I'm Sora, and these are my friends Kairi, Riku, and that's Leon and Tifa helping Cloud. He's a friend of ours, too!"

Kermit the Frog squished up his face in an unpleasant frown, as if he had swallowed a sour fly. "_You're_ Sora? Yeesh."

Sora scowled. "Nice to meet you too!"

"Oops! Oh, sorry, I didn't quite mean it to come out that way. It's just that only five minutes ago, me and Cloud here were fighting for our lives against some ugly jerk asking about a Sora. And bam! Here you are in the flesh. It's enough to give this frog Goosebumps on his warts."

"Who would do this?" Tifa demanded, clenching her fist angrily. "Was it Sephiroth?"

"No," Cloud suddenly croaked out. His eyes opened and he looked at them for a moment before passing out again. "Worse..."

Everyone was shocked by this news. "Worse than Sephiroth?" Kairi whispered in horror. "But...who?"

"It was-" Kermit began, then let loose a yelp. "Look out!" He shoved Sora aside and jumped out. Three Heartless had jumped out of the sand, ready to attack from behind, but suddenly they vanished in a puff of smoke and glowing hearts. Kermit sighed in relief, then spun his Keyblade around triumphantly. "That was a close one."

Sora stared at the Keyblade long and hard. It was completely green and had a swamp motif going on. The word's _Rainbow Connection_ filtered through his mind automatically, perhaps by telepathy, and he pushed them to the back of his mind. "You're a Keyblade wielder," he intoned gravely.

Kermit nodded. "Yeah, and for the first time since I got it, I sure wish I wasn't, because it's because of this Keyblade that someone just tried to kill me!" He looked at Sora seriously. "And I think he's coming to get you next!"


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Sora's mother finished up washing the dishes when Sora ran into the kitchen. "Hey, Mom!" he shouted. "I need to tell you something!"

"No running inside, and wipe your shoes off, young man," she intoned gently, not having to look at him. He stopped, went back to the WELCOME mat and wiped off his shoes, then rushed back to her. "Yes, what is it?"

"Me, Kairi and Riku are going sailing," Sora explained. "Remember that raft we built? Well, we're going to test it."

She chuckled gently and looked at him now. She had such a pretty face, but her eyes were filled with an enormous sadness. Still, when she smiled, it brightened up everything. "Oh, really? And whatever happened to a little thing called 'permission', hmm?"

"Aw, Mom, I'm sixteen now, gimme a break," he sighed. "We won't be gone long. I think."

"C'mere, give me a hug," she suddenly said. Shrugging lightly, he did as she asked, and she surprised him by hugging him rather tightly. "No, you don't need my permission. Not for what you have to do."

"W-What do you mean?" Sora stammered.

She shook her head, brushing her fingers through his hair. "Nothing. It's just you're growing up so fast. You look so much like your father now, it's uncanny."

"Moooom," he groaned. "Stop it with the reminiscing, you're embarrassing me. Look, do you need me to stay here?"

"No, of course not," she whispered. "Just be careful. And take care of Kairi, all right. I know she can take care of herself, but...she's special. She needs that extra measure of love." She turned away and blew her nose. "You better get going. Your ship is waiting." Sora's eyebrows arched slightly at her unusual choice of words. Slowly, he backed out of the room, then broke into a run for the beach.

"Hey! Hello?" Sora shook his head and glanced over at Kairi. She smiled at him sweetly. "You're daydreaming again. Is everything okay?"

"Thinking about Mom, that's all," he replied. "Hoping she's okay. She was acting a little funny when I left her, that's all. I can't just leave her." _Not like _HE _did..._

"So?" Riku interrupted. He walked up to them and sat down; they were currently in the cafeteria, taking a much-deserved break. He nibbled on a small, powdery pastry filled with caramel and other goodies. "Just bring her here."

"So, in your mind, you've already taken the job?" Kairi scoffed.

"Damn straight," he declared. "Why not? A job filled with money and adventure. Pretty much what I always wanted. Hey, what's up with Leon and the president? Why'd he call him 'Squall?' Seemed to just tick him off, if you know what I mean."

"Squall is Leon's name," Sora explained. "I'm not sure of all the details, except he won't use his real name until Radiant Garden is completely restored."

"Completely restored?" Riku laughed. "Looks great to me."

"Yeah, what could be missing?" Kairi asked. "It must be some terribly important to him. What could it be?" Sora nodded in agreement.

Riku stuffed the last pastry into his mouth and sighed contentedly. "Wow, I don't know what these things are, but they sure taste good." Everyone was eating them, the Turkish delight that had been shipped here by accident. "Care for one?" He offered one to Sora and Kairi.

"I'll pass," Sora sighed. Kairi accepted hers and ate it up, finding it utterly delectable. "You know, we really should check up on Cloud, and that Kermit the Frog. Find out what's going on, who tried to kill them and why." Kairi and Riku agreed. He stood up and looked down into the cup of untouched water by him, startled for a moment to see not his reflection, but Roxas.

He looked at Sora with those stern, emotionless blue eyes. "Remember, she's my mother too. You should never have left her behind." Sora blinked twice and the moment past - it was his own reflection; his own very spooked reflection.

Cloud sat on the examining table, his shirt off, unnumbered scars lacerating his back and torso. Through the window Aerith and Tifa watched on worriedly as the doctor entered to examine him. "Hello, everybody!" Cloud stared at the young man with the slightly nasally voice. He had bushy brown hair and wore bright blue scrubs. "This is where _you _say, 'Hi, Doctor Nick!' Get it? No? Not that my name's 'Nick' or anything, it's just - a-huh. Hmm, tough crowd. Anyway, I am your doctor for the day, John Dorian, but everyone who's important calls me 'JD'. Would you like to be important? Would you, hmm, would you, er...?" He picked up Cloud's chart and read it. "Cloud? Well, that's an interesting name! Don't hear that one often. 'Oh, I'm Bob', or 'I'm Joe', but not too many 'Clouds' running about. Well, no problemo! With all the painkillers I've stuffed in you, you're going to be on Cloud Nine! High five! C'mon, don't leave me hanging!"

"How long must I stay here?" Cloud asked. "I have work to do."

"Ouch! I've gotten better responses from a corpse! Ooh, you're cold and bitter and so riddled with angst. 'Angst'. Now there's a funny word. Almost sounds like a condiment. 'I would like some angst on my fries, please'. Now tell me that wasn't the least bit funny?"

"That wasn't the least bit funny," Cloud deadpanned.

"Ha! You do have a sense of humor. A dark, disturbing sense of humor that should be shot and put out of its misery, but hey, we all got issues." He walked out of the examination room while Cloud put his shirt back on. Tifa and Aerith turned to him. "That's about all I can do. He seems in good physical health. Mentally, he could give Hannibal Lecter courses on how to be a chilly bastard. What happened, someone left a tape of William Shatner singing 'Proud Mary' on all night while he was a baby? Don't answer that, I don't wanna know."

The infirmary door slid open and Sora, Kairi and Riku entered. "Hey! How's Cloud doing?" Sora asked hopefully. "We've come to see him, if it's all right."

"Say, it's the famous Sora!" JD crooned. "Man, I always wanted to be a Keyblade bearer myself. The fame, the adventure, the babes. That's the life for me. However, I must admit, your footwear leaves much to be desired."

"Hey!" Sora yelled. "What's wrong with my shoes?"

"Lemme put it this way," JD suggested. "If those shoes were glass slippers, Cinderella's evil stepsisters would have no problem fooling Prince Charming. Anyway, Cloud's free to go; trouble is, can you make him talk? I've got to check up on our little froggy friend in the next room. See you around, ladies! '_Hello, my baby, hello, my honey, hello, my ragtime gal_!_ Baby my heart's on fire, baby you're my one desire_," he sang as he shuffled out the door. "Why is that song stuck in my head every time I think of that frog?"

"Thanks, JD," Aerith sighed. Cloud came out of the examination room, eyes downcast, lost in deep thought. On his back was strapped his giant buster sword. He glanced up momentarily at the two women who loved him, then at the three teens, then simply walked out the door without another word. "I wonder what happened to him?"

"There's only one way to find out," Tifa declared. "Even if it means beating it out of his stubborn butt!" She stormed from the room in a fury.

"So, that sword of his," Riku commented wryly. "He trying to compensate for something?" Kairi gently shoved her elbow into his ribs. "C'mon, let's follow him, get to the bottom of this." He nodded for the door, then suddenly stopped in his tracks, swaying uneasily. "Whoa, I suddenly got real lightheaded there..." He swooned and pitched forward, crashing to the ground.

"Riku!" Sora and Kairi gasped together, but they could do nothing for him, because whatever happened to him, suddenly grabbed a hold of them. They both swayed and fell, falling asleep right there on the infirmary floor.

Aerith was beside Sora instantly. "What's happening?" she gasped. "Tifa! JD! Come back! Oh, wake up, please wake up!" But Sora didn't reply, his thoughts and his mind far, far away.

A small group had assembled under the great rotunda, President Laguna taking his usual spot behind the podium. Dr. Ross looked them all over cautiously; there was General Celes, the lovely blonde haired woman with the strange sword; General Beatrix with her eyepatch, a fine leader if a real stickler for the rules; and finally, the top bastard himself, General Hein, who had seemed to make it a personal vendetta to discredit, or better yet, destroy Aki at all costs. Right now, he was talking privately with his two goons; Aki referred to them as 'Tweedledum' and 'Tweedledummer', but their real names were Biggs and Wedge. Biggs was the big, dumb on in red armor, Wedge the smaller, anxious one in blue armor; both served General Hein almost fanatically; both were dumber than a sack of hammers.

"You okay?" Leon asked her, and sat down beside her. "These debriefings can be tough. Sure you wouldn't like to postpone it?"

"Not right now," she replied. "This is important. I may very well have discovered..." Her voice trailed off and she smiled weakly. "Never mind. Looks like the President's ready to get started. And by the way, thanks again."

"Don't mention it," Leon replied as thing settled down. The lights dimmed save for those around the council members and those here for the debriefing. "General Pain-in-the-Heiny is about to start his perfunctory ramble."

"Okay, so lemme get this straight," General Hein remarked in his usual sarcastic manner. He was a handsome man with a small widow's peak, and wore a black leather jacket. "You go out to the Forbidden Zone, violating how many implicit regulations, then make a direct request for SeeD assistance without contacting my office? This is insane. Anyone else care to recall the last time someone went about experimenting on Heartless? Hmm? We lost Radiant Garden! Everyone scattered to the far corner's of the universe! Families ripped apart, sons, wives, husbands lost all because of Ansem the Wise."

"That isn't true!" Leon interjected angrily. "It's been established by now that it was Ansem's apprentice Xehanort that caused this crisis!"

"Oh, sure, of course, all based on the words of a giant talking mouse!" Hein scoffed belligerently. "And even if it was this 'Xehanort' character, of whom no records exist save a few of these sketchy 'Ansem reports' we've managed to collect, it was because of Ansem the Wise it all started! Now it's starting all over again. I move that Dr. Ross curtail this insane pursuit immediately!"

"Dr. Ross's research has helped us all immensely," Leon said firmly.

"That's another thing I'm skeptical of," Hein continued. "This alliance you've struck up with the doctor? What is SeeD hiding inside those vaulted corridors that they aren't willing to share with the High Council?"

"That's enough," General Celes warned sharply. "You're offering conjecture of things you have no proof for."

"All I want to know is what the heck is going on," Hein said angrily. "What is your constant obsession with the Heartless, Doctor, and what's SeeD getting out of this?"

"Please! If I could just be allowed the chance to speak!" Aki begged. There was a moment's silence, then Laguna yielded her the floor. "Thank you! The reason I'm so zealous in my research is because I think I've finally found what no one thought possible - a cure for the Heartless!"

"Yeah, we already have one of those," Hein remarked coldly. "It's called killing them!"

"What I mean is the complete reversal of this, this Heartlessization," she said boldly. "Where a stolen heart is returned to the owner, making a whole person once again!" Everyone was stunned by this revelation. "In fact, it's already been done. Sora, the Keyblade Bearer, was a Heartless once. Not only did he return to normal, but he even reunited with his Nobody!"

"A one-time exception that proves the rule, nothing more," Hein sneered. "Everyone lost to the Heartless remains forever lost! The only release is the sweet sting of death for these mindless monsters!"

"No, I will not believe that!" Aki stated firmly. "They can be redeemed, I know it. They have to be redeemed." Slowly, she unbuttoned her jacket and pulled it back, revealing strange machinery built right into her chest. There, beating beside her heart was a small, black cloud - a baby Heartless! Everyone in the chamber gasped and began talking at once. Leon groaned and covered his face.

"You're a Heartless!" Hein roared. "We've been severely compromised!"

"Enough, Hein," Laguna sighed. "Dr. Ross has the floor until I say so!"

"Thank you, Mr. President," she said, buttoning her shirt up. "Yes, I have a Heartless growing in me; my Heartless. I was infected years ago, but thanks to the very machines Xehanort used that made the Heartless, we can also contain them. And what can be contained, controlled, can also be eventually cured. I know it." She grew excited now. "The killing can stop! We can cause an effective change and restore the balance that once was! Please, allow my research to continue!"

"You pose a passionate, thoughtful argument, Dr. Ross," Laguna said. "But the fact remains that your machinery could break down any moment, and you'll become a Heartless. As much as I hate to admit it, Hein is right. You pose some threat. However, after a thorough study of your research, I have to say you have some interesting theories. It is my decision to have you continue your research, under SeeD supervision."

"What!" Hein roared, having to be physically restrained by General Celes and General Beatrix. "This is an outrage! The Heartless cannot be trusted at any cost! We've lost too much to them, and now you're allowing one to head up our defense?"

"I am not a Heartless," Aki declared. "Not yet."

Hein shrugged off the women and straightened his coat. "This isn't over. Not by a long shot!"

"It is for today," Laguna said, hammering the podium. "This council is adjourned!"

Aki gathered her papers up and filed them in her briefcase. "You really almost blew it with that stunt," Leon lectured angrily.

"I had to get their attention somehow," she replied easily. "It worked, didn't it? Now I have the freedom to finish this up. Soon, the Heartless will be a thing of the past."

Suddenly, President Laguna stood by them, smiling cheerfully despite the somber atmosphere. "Hey, good work there, Doc. Really wowed the audience. Uh, could I have a moment alone with our illustrious SeeD commander-in-chief?" She nodded understandingly and walked away. Laguna turned to Leon. "So, happy?"

"I'm trying hard not to be," Leon said. "Is there something you need, sir?"

"Enough with the formalities, you know I hate that stuff," Laguna said. "Listen, I know you want nothing to do with me, but FYI, I wanted to tell you Ellone is back."

Leon perked up. "Since when?"

"Since this morning. I was going to tell you - the same way you were going to tell me Sora and his friends had arrived." Leon scowled. "It's okay, things happen. Go to her, see her. She wants to see you too." Laguna slapped his back and walked off, leaving Leon to brood over the future.

The three Keyblade bearers raced for their lives through the dark alleyways of the city. They stopped suddenly to catch their breath; a large man with spiky hair, a small, wiry man with a bald head, and a beautiful woman with weird, yellow eyes like a wolf. _What the...? What's going on? What am I doing here?_ "I think we lost 'em," the big man said, obviously the leader. _I know this guy...but from where?_

"By losing ourselves," the bald man laughed. "You're always good at getting us lost, Martyn."

"Shut up, Steiner," Martyn growled. "We're not lost. I know exactly where we are and where we are going!"

"Oh, yeah?" the woman with yellow eyes asked sarcastically. "Where then?"

"Um, er," Martyn coughed nervously. "Uh, that way! Follow me! Steiner! Carrie!" His friends rolled their eyes in disbelief, but got up and ran after him nonetheless. "Faster! We're almost out of this mess!" His Keyblade was the massive and deadly Ultima Weapon; Steiner carried the long, decoratively festooned Decisive Pumpkin; and Carrie wielded the powerful Hero's Crest. They wore plain gray uniforms with flak jackets and helmets. "Don't look back!" He pulled a small locket out from under his shirt, opened it up and kissed the picture of a beautiful woman inside it. _I know that woman!_

They ran out of the alley and into a large square that had obviously been bombed out during some sort of air raid. The sky had been choked black with smoke, and fires burned everywhere. Out of the ground popped literally hundreds and hundreds of Heartless, thick as ants and just as hungry. "Don't look forward, you mean," Steiner griped, hefting his Keyblade.

Suddenly, the Heartless pulled aside, parting like the Red Sea. The already oppressive atmosphere reached a fever pitch. _What's going on? What's happening? Look's like a war! That big guy looks _sooo_ familiar, but where have I seen him before? How did they get Keyblades? Where is this? No..._when_ is this?_ "I have a bad feeling about this," Steiner groaned.

And then HE appeared. A massive warrior, clad in black armor, his face completely enshrouded in an obsidian helmet. On his shoulder lay a HUGE Keyblade, the likes of which any of them had never seen before. The Heartless, creatures of instinct that they were, scurried away from him as if in terror, melting away into the shadows. Steiner wiped sweat from his brow, breathing heavily. "That's him, Marty, that's the guy who killed Malone! I saw it! Ran him through like a dog!"

"He wields a Keyblade," Martyn whispered in horror. "Are you a Heartless?" he demanded.

The armored warrior shook his head. "I am as human as you are, friends. Hmm...Malone, Malone? Now which one was he? Did he use this Keyblade?" He raised his empty hand, and a flash of light produced another Keyblade. He twirled it easily. "No, not this one. This one, perhaps?" The Keyblade vanished, replaced by another. "Or this one?" Yet another appeared, then another and another. "Oh, I know. This one belonged to Malone." One last Keyblade appeared, the Oblivion. "Good blade. Strong, powerful. You should have heard him scream when I ran it through his heart."

"You monster!" Carrie screamed angrily. "You're a Keyblade Bearer, you should be fighting with us against the Darkness and the Heartless, not against us! Why are you chasing us? What do you want?"

The evil warrior chuckled ominously. "Chasing you? Hmm, interesting choice of words. I guess you could say, it's my job. Of course, Momma always told me to get a job I'd enjoy, and believe me, I really enjoy this one. And what I want are those pretty Keyblades you have there, and you're gonna give him to me right now, and then you're going to die a horrible, bloody, agonizing death with lots and lots of screaming, just the way I like it."

"Like HELL!" Steiner roared, and lunged to attack. The warrior easily parried the attack with his massive, nameless Keyblade, then retaliated with a devastating smash that sent Steiner to his knees. He screamed in pain, his knees breaking as they slammed against the concrete, and then the warrior pulled another Keyblade out of the air.

"You must realize, that in the end," the warrior whispered grimly, "there is no escape from a Chaser." He spun the Keyblade around so fast it sang, and thrust it straight through Steiner's chest. His mouth opened in a scream that never came, blood trickling down his lip. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell over, dead. The warrior then picked up Steiner's blade and made it vanish, then sighed as if he had just eaten a large, delicious meal. "Okay...who's next?"

Marytn held up his hand, keeping Carrie from doing anything rash. "You may think you're invincible, but I bet even you won't like a ton of bricks falling on your pointy little head!" he yelled, and brought the Ultima Weapon crashing sideways into a building. He screamed until he was hoarse, forcing the blade around the base of the wall. The warrior realized too late what was happening, turning to run, but the entire building collapsed as if it had been bombed, crashing down to bury the warrior beneath several tons of bricks to be exact. He grabbed Carrie's hand. "Run! Move! Move!" They hacked at a few stray Heartless before making their ultimate escape.

Out of the ruins, the armored warrior pulled himself out, apparently unhurt but definitely delayed. "We will meet again, Keyblade Bearers," he declared, shaking his fist after them. "Make no mistake!"

"Who was that?" Carrie screamed as they fought their way out of the chaos. "What did he want with our Keyblades?"

"I don't know," Martyn whispered. "I don't know." He clutched the locket around his throat a little tighter. "Just keep moving! The transport can't be too far away now! Hurry!"

Sora's eyes fluttered open. He was on a soft bed and sun shone through the window. "You're awake!" Aerith said happily. "You had us pretty worried there."

"Kairi! Riku!" Sora gasped. "S-Steiner?" he added confusedly. "What just happened?"

"You passed out on us," Aerith explained. "Don't worry, I contacted Leon, he's coming. I'll go get JD, you just hang tight." She rubbed his head and hurried out of the room. Slowly, he looked around the room, blinking his eyes against the bright sunlight. It was a startling change from the horrors he had seen in his dream. It was a dream, wasn't it? There were three beds, and Kairi and Riku occupied the other two. Kairi's eyes blinked open and she sat up groggily, but Riku woke up with a start, screaming and clutching his chest as if he had been wounded.

"That guy stabbed me!" he screamed, then saw he was all right, safe in a room in Radiant Garden. "What just happened? Was I dreaming?"

"Poor Steiner," Kairi moaned, and began to cry.

"Steiner? And Carrie and Martyn?" Sora demanded. They all looked at each other in shock and confusion. "YOU DREAMED WHAT I DREAMED!" they said together.

"Glad to see you're awake." There sat Kermit the Frog, his skinny little arm in a sling. He got up and walked over to them, and they stood up to greet him. "I suppose we have a lot to talk about. Maybe I should begin?"

"Sounds good to me," Sora answered. "Can you tell us what's going on?"

"Yeesh, I wish," Kermit sighed, sitting down on the bed. "It's been a crazy day. Let's see. I had just closed up the theater I work at when this guy wearing black armor appeared out of nowhere. He had this enormous Keyblade I had never seen before. He attacked me, demanding me to surrender my own Keyblade, and asking if I knew a Sora, which I didn't, and if I knew King Mickey, whom I do. Then Cloud appeared. He fought off the warrior, but just barely. This guy, he was unstoppable. I doubt Piggy could take him."

"Piggy?" Sora echoed.

"Oh, a friend of mine. And just a friend, no matter what she says! Yeesh! Anyway, we managed to escape and ended up here."

"How did you end up here?" Riku asked.

"Why with my Keyblade of course!" Kermit replied. "You know that don't you? The ability to open portals to other worlds?" Sora and Riku frowned awkwardly. "So you don't know? Well, perhaps someday I'll show you - but not today! Today we have to get back to my world, and stop that guy before he hurts anyone else!" He jumped up and nearly fell over. "Whoa! I'm a little more messed up than I imagined. What can I say; it's not easy being green."

The door slid open and Kronk shuffled in, doing the moonwalk. "Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na-na-naaaaaa, Kronk-Kronk, Kronk-Kronk, Kronk-Kronk! Na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na-na-na-naaaaaa, KRO-ONK! Hey little buddies, Aerith called, said you had a bit of a nasty fall, thought you might like some of this here Turkish delight." He had a silver tray and pulled the lid off, passing them out.

"Jeez, he has his own theme song now?" Riku moaned. "I wish I had some wax to stuff in my ears now."

"Whoa, who's the giant frog?" Kronk asked, staring at Kermit.

"May I help you?" Kermit asked angrily.

"Oh, sorry. Just when I look at you, I can't help but get this craving for some of Doc Hopper's French fried frog legs on a fried green bun. Is that wrong?"

"Yeesh," Kermit moaned, slapping a flipper against his forehead.

"No, thanks, Kronk, we have no time," Sora replied. Riku and Kairi looked at him oddly. "We have to get out of here now."

"We do?" Kairi asked. "To where?"

"To wherever Kermit came from," Sora replied. "And find this guy."

"Whoa!" Kermit yelped, jumping up in front of Sora. "You must have bumped your head harder than I thought. Didn't you hear a word I said? This guy is seven shades of bad written all over him. You go up against him, it'll be the last thing you do!"

"I don't care," Sora replied. "He's obviously bad news, and I intend to put a stop to it. We stopped the Heartless and we stopped the Nobodies. This will be no different."

"I'm with you, Sora, all the way," Riku assured him.

"So am I!" Kairi declared excitedly. "One question - how do we get there?"

"I'd open a portal for you, but I'm afraid I'm a little too banged up to do it properly," Kermit said. "However, this might come in handy." He held up a small, colorful block.

"A gummi block!" Sora gasped. "We can install it in our ship and get there in no time! Excellent!"

"I wish I could go with you, but I better hang tight right here in Radiant Garden," Kermit said. "If King Mickey contacts us, he'll need to be warned of this new menace."

"Not a bad idea," Sora agreed, tossing the block up in the air and catching it. "All right! Let's do this!" He crossed his hands with Riku and Kairi. "All for one!"

"And one for all!" Riku and Kairi yelled out.

"Just be careful," Kermit said firmly. "And when you get there, head straight for the theater. You'll find my friends there. They'll be sure to help you if you tell them I sent you. And tell Piggy I'm fine lest she go nuts."

Kronk sniffed proudly. "Oh, this is just lovely. Such displays of friendship and bravery in the face of such adversity, or something or other. Wow. I should have been a poet or something."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

It felt a little odd being back on the gummi ship trail, flying the wild star ways for worlds unknown. They arrived at the new world with little fanfare, landing outside the theater Kermit had told them about. Riku was unimpressed. "What is this place? It's just a rundown old building." Inside everything was dark, decrepit and covered with dust and cobwebs. They even had to force the door open. The entire theater was empty, the windows boarded up, seats torn out, the balcony in disarray.

"What a mess," Sora grumbled. "Maybe we took a wrong turn?"

"Wait a minute," Kairi said, cupping her ear. "Does anyone else hear that?"

"No," Sora and Riku said together. "Face facts, this place is abandoned," Riku added. "But we came all this way, maybe we should have a look around."

"Wait!" Kairi said firmly. "Stop and just listen." She smiled excitedly. "It's music!"

It started slow and soft, then built up to a very catchy, toe-tapping tune. "_It's time to put on makeup, it's time to light the lights! It's time to get things started on the Muppet Show tonight!"_

"What the heck?" Riku laughed incredulously as the curtain lifted and the lights came on. As if by magic, the entire broken down shambles became electrified, spotlights circling the vast audience chamber, fireworks exploding, cannons booming, and a full-scale orchestra piping lively, spirited, upbeat music throughout the theater.

"_Ladies and gentlemen, it's our honor to introduce tonight's special guests, Sora, Kairi, and Riku! YAAAAAA!"_

"Cool!" Kairi laughed and clapped her hands.

"Okay, this...this is weird," Riku said.

The curtain pared and a fuzzy bear with a bad hair and necktie appeared on the stage. "HEY! Why do they call it a Keyblade? It's not a key! It's not a blade! Wakka-wakka!" He held up a bicycle horn and honked it loudly.

"Actually, it's kind of both," Sora replied. The bear moaned as tomatoes flew at him from everywhere, and the curtain fell down to hide him.

"Man, his jokes stink!" an old man in the balcony groaned.

"Yeah, you could say we can hardly 'bear' them!" the other old man groaned. "Oh-ho-ho-ho-ho!"

"_It's the most sensational, inspirational, celebrational, Muppetational - this is what we CALL THE MUPPET SHOOOOOOW!_" The little blue weirdo with the big, crooked nose pulled out a trumpet and blew it - only to have it ignominiously explode in his face, leaving it black with soot. Sora, Kairi and Riku applauded excitedly.

"Ladies and gentlemen, for your entertainment pleasure, the Muppet Theater's very own prima donna suprema, Miss Piggy!" The curtain rose and a very feminine pig with big, dewy eyes, wearing long gloves and a beautiful gown stepped on the stage. She cleared her throat and began singing in a faux French accent.

"_Oh, on one froggy evening, my true love came to me_," she warbled. The kids had to stuff their hands into their ears. "Hey! Don't be a critic!" she snarled.

Suddenly, a horrendous wrenching sound interrupted the entire show. High above Miss Piggy swayed a giant crystal chandelier, and it suddenly ripped free of its moorings, plunging straight for her! "RUN!" a rat screamed. "Run if you value your rotten, lousy, ill-conceived, misbegotten lives! The Phantom of the Muppet Theater strikes again!" Instantly, Sora summoned up his Keyblade and vaulted onto the stage, smashing the chandelier aside before it crushed Miss Piggy. "Shoot! He saved the Pig. Oops, uh, I mean, hooray! She's all right!"

"YOU CHEAP JERK!" Miss Piggy screamed, shaking her fists at the ceiling. "You ruined my big number! Come down here and I'll clean your clock! I'll rip off your head and mail it to your momma!" High above a dark figure in a dark cloak and wearing a strange white mask vanished into the shadows before Riku could catch him. Riku looked around and scratched his head, not knowing where the Phantom could have went.

Miss Piggy brushed her long, blonde hair back and turned sweet as sugar again. "Thank you for saving _moi, _young man," she intoned in a syrupy French accent. She held out her arm to him. "You may kiss my hand!"

Sora made a face, sticking out his tongue. "Do I really have to?" he gulped.

"You better, you little cheap punk, or else this hand will slap you silly," she remarked in a butch tone now. Sora looked as if he had sucked a lemon, but did as he was told.

"Whoa, talk about your bipolar pig," Riku commented.

"Care to say that to my face, twerp?" Piggy asked, shaking her knuckles under his chin. Riku shook his head quickly.

The other Muppets quickly filled the stage, surrounding their new guests. "Wow!" the blue weirdo gasped. "You guys have Keyblades like Kermit does! Are you like in a big, secret club? How do you join? Does it involve me doing something humiliating like standing on a flagpole in my underpants singing 'Old Man River' and smeared with paste? Please, o, please, o, please say it does!"

Riku grimaced. "We've got a weirdo here."

"Wow, have you ever got my number! By the way, I'm Gonzo the Great! You should see my human cannonball routine. I usually end up slamming into a brick wall. Doesn't that sound cool?"

"Fozzie's my name, and jokes are my game!" the bear said. "Hey, seeing you reminds me of a joke! There was this kid with really spiky hair!"

"How spiky way it?" Sora asked incredulously, still holding his Keyblade.

Fozzie gulped nervously. "It was so spiky, everyone loved it, and never made fun of him again! A ha-ha, ha, oh, brother!"

"Egad, he's choking again, Statler!"

"You can say that again, Waldorf! Maybe someone should adjust his necktie - a little tighter! Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho!"

Suddenly, a freaky red furred creature came tearing on the stage. He saw Kairi and let loose a howl. "AH! Woo-man! Woo-MAN!"

"Eek!" Kairi shrieked, hiding behind Sora and Riku.

"Hey! Back off!" Sora yelled. "That's not cool!"

"Ah," the creature sighed. "Sorr-wee!"

"You'll have to forgive Animal," the rat said. "I am Rizzo, and I'm about the sanest guy in this joint. Welcome to the Muppet Theater! Er, what's left of it that is."

"What's wrong?" Sora asked. "Who was that guy who dropped the chandelier?"

"That was the dreaded Phantom of the Muppet Theater," Gonzo said, looking glum.

"He's been messing things up for weeks!" Fozzie exclaimed. "Causing power outages, breaking sets, ruining our rehearsals! If we don't have a hit show soon, the landlord will have to close us down. We'll all be out on the streets - or worse, have to find real jobs! I don't think I can take that kind of stress, ooh!"

"Either way, I'm fine," snooty Miss Piggy declared. "I can always go back to my high-powered fashion supermodel job in Paris!"

"Posing for what? Farm and Field Weekly?" Riku snorted.

"That does it! Hi-YAAA!" Miss Piggy suddenly karate chopped Riku across the stage and into a pile of beanbags. Kairi and Sora goggled in disbelief.

Riku stood up and swayed around. "Word of advice everyone - don't piss off the pig!"

"Glad we could reach a mutual understanding, dearie," Piggy cooed sweetly. "So, are you friends with my sweet, green Kermie?"

Kairi giggled. "Kermie?"

"Yeah, we're his friends!" Sora said. "In fact, he sent us to help you. Don't worry though, he's safe, he just couldn't make it. But we're looking for someone. A man in black armor, carrying a giant Keyblade like the ones me and Kermit use, only much, much larger. Have you seen him?"

"We'd remember someone like that," Gonzo said. "Although there are mornings I wake up and forget my phone number, so I'm not exactly the most reliable witness."

"Sora, what if the Phantom and this stranger are the same guy?" Kairi suggested.

"That's what I was thinking," Sora said. "How can we draw him out so we can take him out permanently?"

"That's easy!" Gonzo said. "All we need to do is put on a show and he'll come and ruin it!"

"You don't need any help from the Phantom to ruin your shows!" Statler yelled.

"Yeah! You're doing just fine yourselves! Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho!" Waldorf added.

"Do they heckle everything?" Sora asked irately.

"No, not everything!" Statler answered.

"Yeah, just the scripts, the acting, the direction, the special guests," Waldorf said. "On second thought, that is everything! Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho!"

"What are you suggesting?" Riku asked. "That we help put on a show? I have to admit, I'm pretty good looking, but my singing needs a little work."

"We'll think of something," Sora declared firmly. "We have to."

General Hein massaged his temples when his men came into the room. "You called us, sir?" Biggs asked.

"Boys, have you ever lost family?" he asked them. They looked at each other, then shook their heads no. "I just ask because I want you to understand a little bit about why I do the things I do. I know I'm not popular, have a reputation for being a pain in the butt, but someone has to get this job done. The Heartless cannot be trusted, only destroyed. During the original pullout, when Radiant Garden fell to the Darkness Ansem had made, I lost both my wife and my son. Leá, that was his name. I saw before my very eyes as they turned him into one of those...abominations, helpless to save him. If you don't understand anything else, understand that."

"Boss, Wedge and me are with you to the bitter end!" Biggs assured him.

"Bitter, you can say that again," he sighed. "I'm sick of this consortium of wizards and mercenaries and scientists getting together, dictating policy. The President is more often willing to follow their advice than the advice of his own generals. It's disgusting. I hate it. And now, this Dr. Ross comes out and says, more or less, that's she's a Heartless herself. Doesn't Laguna realize who he's handed our defense over? Our entire defense rests on a group of mercenaries that have a Heartless as their key advisor. Unacceptable. If we don't do something, Radiant Garden will become a Hollow Bastion all over again. I won't allow it. When it happened last time, I was just a mere soldier, like you two. Now I'm a general, with men to command and power to wield. Biggs, Wedge, there's work to be done."

Before he could go on, the intercom on his desk buzzed. "What?"

"The President requests your presence in the reception auditorium immediately," his secretary answered. "They're receiving a special diplomatic envoy."

"I wasn't made aware of any envoy," Hein whispered angrily. "Sounds like a Heartless plot." He tapped the button. "Tell the President I'll be there." He gestured to Biggs and Wedge. "You boys have your orders. Do me proud."

"Sir, yes, sir!" they declared, saluting smartly and clicking their heels. They turned and ran from the room.

Elsewhere, Leon, Aerith, Cid and VINCENT waited up in the balcony, overlooking the giant amphitheater where diplomatic guests were greeted. Down below was Laguna, and accompanying him were his good friends, big, silent Ward, and small, dark, swift Kiros. Aerith smiled at Leon. "You seem unusually chipper for a change. You went to see your sister, didn't you?"

Leon smiled. "Not yet, I've been too busy. It's just...I don't know. It feels good to know that Sora's back out there, saving the day again. I feel nothing can go wrong."

Little did he know how ironic that statement was. "The diplomats have arrived," the ever articulate VINCENT whispered. They grew silent as the great doors opened and an entourage of incredible creatures began to flow in. Satyrs, minotaurs, harpies, hags, a pack of large wolves, bearing the pure white standard of their ruler. In their midst walked a little dwarf with a long beard. "All hail the Queen of Narnia, Empress of the Lone Islands, and Lady of Cair Paravel, Jadis!" he cried out.

And then _she_ appeared. Tall, proud, beautiful, and not a little arrogant, she sat in a throne suspended on the shoulders of four stout Cyclopes, ugly fellows with one eye apiece. Floating along beside her was an ominous, blood-red robot with a single optic sensor that flashed alarmingly at everyone it passed.

"Don't know who she is," Cid remarked, "but lady knows how to make an entrance!" Leon had to agree. "Anyone else notice it got a tad colder in here?"

"I concur," VINCENT said. "The temperature dropped a noticeable 12.7 degrees the moment she entered the chamber. Calculating the size of this chamber, that's quite an impressive feat. Apparently, she is a being of magic, her realm of expertise being in ice and wind magic."

"Thanks for the info," Leon whispered.

"A regular ice princess, well I'll be," Cid grumbled.

The Cyclopes lowered the sedan and Jadis dismounted. "Welcome, your Majesty, to Radiant Garden!" Laguna greeted cheerfully, taking her hand and kissing it. "You are the first such envoy from another world to visit us since the completion of our massive restoration project. Your presence is a delight and an honor."

"Indeed," Jadis replied coolly. "The Heartless did so much damage to all our worlds. That is one reason I have come, seeking an alliance of mutual benefit against an occurrence such as that ever again. But let us talk politics and strategy later; I so very much wish to tour your beautiful city. Allow me to introduce two of my aids; this dwarf is Ginarrbrik, my majordomo." The dwarf bowed so his head touched the floor. "And this robot is my personal bodyguard, Maximilian."

"Hi, Max!" Laguna said pleasantly, and even waved. Maximilian remained utterly silent, his red sensor scanning Laguna ominously. "Heh, heh, the strong, silent type, huh? He'd get along well with Ward here." Big Ward just grunted. "Anyway, saving the formalities and protocols for later is all right by me. I never had much use for 'em anyway. Please, follow me! I'll serve as your personal guide for this tour!" He made a small bow and gestured for her to come.

Leon watched them go, a concerned look on his face. Suddenly, the white Queen looked up at him and smiled. He stepped back, an icy chill running down his spine. "Leon?" Aerith whispered, touching his shoulder. "What's wrong?"

"Everything," he replied. "C'mon, we better get back to SeeD central!" Without further explanation to his three confused comrades, he ran down the hallway and was gone.

Amidst all the pomp and circumstance, no one noticed the small, rather clunky, beat up old robot come floating in through a window. It took a look around carefully as if to make sure no one saw it, then proceeded to hover down the wall and followed after the crowd, trying its best to remain quiet and undetected as possible.

Sora scratched the name off the list and sighed gently. "I'm sorry, um, Mr. Bird, but your act just isn't what we're looking for."

"That's okay!" the big yellow bird on the stage replied, hardly upset by the news. "I really didn't want to join anyway. My real dream is to go to New York City and break into public television! Bye-bye!" He skipped off the stage, going 'la-te-da-te-da' all the way.

"Okay, and that brought to you today by the letter 'D'," Riku groaned. "D for 'dumb'."

"I thought it was 'C' for cute, so there!" Kairi commented, sticking out her tongue at Riku. "Okay, who's next on the list?"

A big trashman wandered onto the stage carrying a rusty garbage can. The lid popped open and a furry green monster stuck his head out. "And what's this act called?" Sora asked.

"It's not an act!" the green grouchy monster yelled. "I'm the next door neighbor, and I've come to tell you I'm sick of all the noise you're making! So SCRAM! C'mon, Bruno, let's get out of here! I hear there's a garbage festival going on at the city dump, and I don't wanna miss is!" The lid slammed shut and the trashman wandered off the stage.

"We are getting nowhere _fast_," Riku said, throwing his pen down in frustration. "If we're going to get this show on the road, we better get started now."

"I agree," Sora said. "All right...Kairi! Looks like you're up next!"

Kairi puffed out her cheeks. "All right guys. Promise not to laugh!"

"Don't worry, we won't," Sora assured her.

"Actually, I was talking to those two up there," she explained, pointing to Statler and Waldorf.

"Don't worry, we just heckle the bad performances!" Statler said.

"Which means you have nothing to worry about, seeing how you've never given a bad performance!" Waldorf added.

"Oh, wait, you've never performed before - period! Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho!"

"I can't do this," Kairi moaned.

"Yes you can!" Sora insisted. "You'll knock 'em dead! I have faith in you!"

"You better hope you knock us dead!" Waldorf said.

"Yeah! We can't make fun of you beyond the grave! Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho!"

Kairi didn't buckle under pressure, and ran off back stage. In a few moments, she walked out, wearing a cute little tank top and miniskirt. In her hands was a cordless microphone. "Well? How do I look?" she asked shyly.

Sora was speechless, his jaw dropped to the floor. "You look great," Riku said. He elbowed Sora in the ribs. "_Riiiight_, Sora?"

"Guh, I mean, yeah," Sora stammered, trying to inconspicuously wipe the drool off his mouth.

Kairi beamed happily. "Okay! Hit it Rowlf, Dr. Teeth!"

"You heard the little lady," Dr. Teeth declared suavely, flashing off his big gold teeth. "Time for the Electric Mayhem Orchestra to get their groove thing on!"

Rowlf the Dog began pounding on the piano; Animal kept beat with his drums (thankfully he didn't EAT the drums); Floyd Pepper on bass; Janice on lead; and Zoot on his trusty old saxophone. The lights went laser and everything became loud and fast.

"Crazy Harry plays with FIREWORKS! Hee, hee, hee, hee!" Crazy Harry giggled insanely, and set off the pyrotechnic displays in cue with Kairi's performance.

_Thinking of you, where you are!_

_We pray for our sorrows to end,_

_and hope that our hearts will blend._

_Now I will step forward to realize this wish-_

_And who knows?_

_Starting a new journey may not be so hard,_

_or maybe it has already begun!_

_There are many worlds,_

_but they share the same sky-_

_One sky, one destiny!_

_A scattered dream that's like a far-off memory/_

_A far-off memory that's like a scattered dream._

_I want to line the pieces up-_

_Yours...and mine!_

She finished with a big finale that brought down the house and took a bow, flowers tossed up on the stage around her. Statler and Waldorf were speechless a moment. "It was loud!" Statler complained.

"It was garish!" Waldorf yelled.

"It was seizure-inducing!" Statler moaned.

"It was..._short_," Waldorf said. They looked at each other and said together, "WE LOVE IT!"

"Looks like we have our showstopper!" Riku declared, applauding loudly. "I never knew Kairi was so talented."

"Neither did I," Sora muttered dejectedly. "I feel a little stupid never seeing that before in her."

"And we're glad you finally feel what we've always known about you!" Statler said. "Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho!"

"Do those two _never _stop?" Riku demanded.

"Welcome to my nightmare," Fozzie sighed unhappily.

Suddenly, all the lights in the theater, from the stage, across the auditorium and in the balconies, went out, and everyone began screaming and scuffling in the darkness. "Somebody's touching me!" Miss Piggy roared.

"Oops, sorry, that's my nose you felt!" Gonzo said. "OUCH! You hit me!"

"Oh, sorry, didn't see there," Piggy said sweetly.

The lights came back on and all the Muppets floundered around on the stage in a great big heap. Gonzo's nose was twisted in a big pretzel knot. Pompous Sam the Eagle stepped out of his dressing room and frowned down upon all the chaos. "You are all - WEIRDOES!" he denounced, then went back inside, slamming the door behind him.

"Where's Kairi?" Sora yelled in horror as he searched around frantically. "Kairi! Where's Kairi?"

"SORA!" Kairi screamed from high up in the rafters. "HELP!"

"The Phantom!" Gonzo proclaimed melodramatically. "The Phantom has struck again! I-EEEE!"

"Quick, before he gets away!" Sora yelled, pulling out his Keyblade and scrambling up the curtain as agile as a monkey. Riku was right behind him, climbing up the far balcony to cut off the Phantom. "Stop! You're not going anywhere, buddy!"

_Beep-beep-beep-ba-beep!_ "This is a Muppet news flash!" the Newscaster declared from his anchorman chair. "Sora and Riku have the Phantom on the ropes! OH NO!" A thousand pounds of rope fell down on top of him in a cataclysmically spectacular fashion.

The Phantom was stuck between Riku and Sora, Kairi tucked helplessly in one arm. Sora grimaced angrily. "Are you the warrior who attacked Kermit?" he demanded. _Are you the warrior from my creepy dream?_ he also wanted to say. _Are you a, what was it called? A...Chaser? _One look at Riku and Sora knew he was thinking the exact same thing. "Let Kairi go, before we kick your Phantom butt!"

"As you wish," the Phantom crooned in a sinister voice, and promptly tossed poor Kairi off the gangplank. She screamed in horror, barely managing to grab a sandbag before it was too late.

"You'll pay for that!" Sora roared, slicing the Keyblade at the Phantom. They parried back and forth through the rafters, the Phantom armed with a shiny, black blade; his sword skills were terribly impressive, and he kept Sora guessing with each move. Even with Riku, the Phantom proved a formidable foe to fight.

Kairi slid down the rope and back to the stage. "We've got to help them!" Rizzo yelled. "But how? The Phantom's too quick!"

A distant throbbing vroom filled the auditorium, and everyone turned in time to see a motorcycle explode through the entranceway. There was Miss Piggy in her daredevil jumpsuit and helmet, looking cool and confident as always. "I've had it up to HERE with this Phantom jerk! It's either him or me this time! HIIIIIIIIIIIIII-YAAAAAAAAA!" She gunned her motorcycle to full throttle and roared down the aisle, hitting the ramp at the end, and soared into the air.

The Phantom had no time to dodge it, as Miss Piggy's motorcycle swept towards him. He tried to duck, but Miss Piggy jumped off the motorcycle and landed on top of him, knocking him over the side of the railings, and they plummeted to the ground, crashing in a loud, painful heap. The Phantom got up and groaned, clutching his forehead, but Miss Piggy was an unstoppable, Category 5 hurricane force flurry of punches, kicks and headbutts with no mercy. She snapped his arm, kicked him where the sun don't shine, smashed her elbow into his guts, then rammed her hard as steel forehead against his. The Phantom wobbled uneasily, then fell over. "Timber!" Piggy sneered, and planted her foot on his chest, a conqueror and the conquered.

"Talk about hog wild!" Riku yelled, clapping enthusiastically. "Just glad she's on our side!"

"Now let's see who he really is," Sora growled, and ripped off the mask. He dropped the mask in surprise and it shattered on the ground. A young man with red hair looked up at him, blinking his eyes groggily. "A-Axel?"

"That's not Axel, Sora," Riku warned, pulling out his Keyblade. "Look...closer."

"A Heartless!" Sora growled, and pulled out his Keyblade. "Who sent you? What do you want?"

"It's too late," the red-headed Heartless moaned. "It's far too late for any of you. Xehanort is back. He'll destroy you all."

"How?" Sora demanded, grabbing the Heartless by the collar and shaking him angrily. "How can he be back? We destroyed him!"

"The Darkness," the Heartless whispered. "The Darkness rewarded him for his service. There is no Heartless. There is no Nobody. There is only Another..." His eyes closed and he slipped away into a pool of darkness, and was gone.

"Good riddance to bad rubbish," Piggy sneered. "Who was that guy anyway?"

"I thought he was a friend," Sora sighed dismally. "I guess I was mistaken."

"Harrumph!" Gonzo scoffed. "Some friend who kidnaps your girlfriend and then tries to kill you!" Sora blushed gently and Kairi smiled. "What? Something I say?"

"What did he mean by no Heartless and no Nobody?" Riku asked. "And this business about the Darkness rewarding him? What does it mean?"

"I don't know," Sora replied, holding up the broken mask. "But I intend to find out!" Before his eyes, a brilliant light enveloped the mask, and suddenly he was in that ethereal realm, the Heart of the World, and there was the keyhole. Instinct took over and he whisked out the Keyblade, the searing light sealing it shut against further invasion from without.

"Wow!" Statler cheered. "Now that was an ending!"

"A duel! Saved the girl! Fireworks!" Waldorf said. "Everything anyone could ask for!"

"I would ask they keep it up!" Statler said.

"Why not just ask for the moon? Oh, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho!"

Sam the Eagle stepped out of his dressing room and saluted them. "At times like this, I am proud to be...an _American_!"

Ethan Rom and Henry Gale studied the Heartless contained in the energy field. "I don't know, I don't see anything different about this," Henry Gale muttered. "Mr. Hanso won't be very happy about this, not in the least."

"Ever since he teamed up with that freaky White Witch, everything's been going to hell!" Ethan Rom snarled. "Experimenting on these Heartless, trying to find a way into Kingdom Hearts...and for what? Certainly not our benefit. Mr. Hanso's lost track of what's important. I hope he snaps out of it soon."

"Something amiss, gentlemen?" Both men nearly jumped out of their skin, for their stood Jadis herself in all her icy glory. "I do hope you weren't talking about me behind my back. It's _rude_."

"N-No, your Majesty!" Ethan Rom stammered. "We're just, um, having some problems getting these Heartless to obey! You have to understand, Hearts are wild, unpredictable entities. We can try and try all we like, but sometimes the results just aren't what we hope for! Just as Ansem's reports indicated-"

"I am not interested in Ansem or his fraudulent reports," Jadis sneered. She waved her wand very close to them and they whimpered fearfully. "Your work is important, but you are falling behind. You need to work faster, understand? Therefore, I'm sending you someone who will actually get the job done." She stepped aside to reveal a slender man who wore a lab coat, and had a sallow, evil face. "This is Dr. Hojo. He is working along similar lines as you, specifically in the hopes of creating a newborn Heartless. He shall motivate you to success." She waved her wand again, its sharp tip perilously close to touching their chests. "Do not fail me, Mr. Rom, Mr. Gale. Your employer may deem you indispensable, but I do not." She waved her wand and a shimmering white portal appeared in the laboratory, and she stepped through it, leaving Hojo with the men.

The evil-faced scientist smiled and rubbed his thin hands together greedily. "So, let's see how you've progressed. Time to work some of my Hojo mojo, no?" Rom and Gale looked at each other, wondering if they had signed up for more than they had originally bargained for.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5

Things are getting out of hand.

"Yeah, we have something of a mini-crisis here, I'll get back to you on that," JD said into the intercom. He turned to the cute little blonde girl. "All right Kim, what's the problem again?"

Kim Possible sighed dismally. "It's like I said. Ron ate a boxful of those gooey Turkey delight thingies, and he got sick. Now, normally, yeah, that's Ron, he's a loveable idiot who eats too much and gets sick, but this is different. Instead of a stomachache, he's complaining about a headache. So I try and use one of those 'curaga' spells on him, but it doesn't work. Granted, magic isn't my thing, kicking butt is, but still, for something as simple as a headache, it should have worked right?"

JD studied Ron Stoppable's chart and scratched his head. "I don't get it. I don't see anything wrong. I'll keep him under surveillance a little while longer, how about that?" Kim shrugged, unable to do much more. Suddenly, the infirmary door slid open, and in walked Lulu and Irvine, carrying Zell between them. "Now what? Zell boy scarf down one too many Kronk-dogs?"

"Not this time," Irvine replied.

"Kronk's out of hotdogs," Lulu said. "All he's had to give out if Turkish delight."

"Ooh, my freaking head," Zell moaned, lying down on a cot. "I feel like I'm on the wrong end of a boxing glove. Ooh, look at all the pretty stars." He passed out suddenly.

"Well, this is another fine mess you've gotten me into," JD sighed, and started to work on Zell.

Sora stood in front of a mirror, holding his Keyblade, examining it carefully. "Wondering how to open up portals, right?" He turned around to see Riku there. "I was wondering the same myself. Sure would cut down on a lot of this flying. Get from point A to point B in an instant."

"Just one of the things I've been thinking about," Sora replied. "I'm still thinking about that shared dream we had. What do you suppose it means? Do you think those were real people we saw? Martyn and Carrie, and that dark warrior?"

"That 'Chaser' you mean?" Riku asked. Sora nodded grimly. "Forget it. Probably doesn't mean a thing. Just a fluke."

"I wish I had your confidence, but I don't know," Sora sighed. He put the Keyblade away and they walked up to the cockpit where Kairi waited, listening to something on the headphones. "Hey, Kairi, what you listening to?"

"I wish I knew," she answered. "It's a series of weird numbers repeating themselves over and over again. I don't get it. It starts with a number, then goes through the series, then repeats. I don't know if it's a code or what, or where the heck it's coming from. The sensors indicate there isn't a world around for light-years and light-years!"

"Lemme listen," Riku said, and took the headphones. He frowned confusedly. "Just numbers, nothing else. Let's see, hand me a piece of paper." Kairi rummaged around and produced the paper and pen and he began copying them down. "Four...eight...fifteen...sixteen...twenty-three...forty-two-"

No sooner had the 'two' come out of his mouth than everything went to pieces. The gummi ship shuddered and all three went flying everywhere. Kairi shrieked as she tried to grab the controls, but to no avail. Riku's head slammed against the ceiling as the ship spun wildly out of control, knocking him out cold. Only Sora was conscious as he saw the rear of the gummi ship ripped apart, and he stared out into the cold, awesome void of space before everything went completely black, the only sound the sound of Kairi screaming his name.

He blinked groggily. _Am I dead?_ He looked up at the sky, palm fronds swaying soothingly before his eyes. "Destiny Island?" he whispered, pushing himself up on his elbow. "I'm...home?"

A large yellow dog sat there in the grasses looking at him, panting mildly. "Plu-!" he began to say, then stopped. It was not Pluto at all. "Aw, nuts." The dog trotted up to him, licked his face, then ran off into the jungle.

In the distance he heard some sort of commotion. "Riku? Is that you? Kairi? C'mon guys, this isn't funny! Hello?" He got up, every inch of his body groaning in protest, and ran towards the noise. "Hey! Guys! Where are you?" He ran out of the jungle and onto a wide, white sand beach, and beyond that lay a crystal clear ocean, sparkling brightly under the cloudless sky. But that wasn't what really caught his eye, for there, partly buried in the sand, was a destroyed aircraft, and all around it were dozens of people running and screaming frantically.

"Help! Help!"

"Walt? WAAALT!"

"Shannon? Shannon!"

"Somebody give me a hand! I gotta get this off of him! Come on! Hey!" Sora found himself grabbed by a handsome man wearing a suit that had seen better days. "Come on, help me get this off this woman!" Sora nodded blankly, completely caught off guard by this disaster.

"Come on! You two! Help!" A bald man limped towards them, as did a man with brown skin and curly hair. All four worked together to lift a piece of the collapsed plane off a middle-aged black lady, grunting as they pushed it aside. "Good work! Go see if you can help someone else!" the man said, quickly taking charge of the situation. Sora could only nod and ran off.

"Riku!" Sora yelled. "Kairi! Where are you?" But it was useless to get his voice through the chaos. In his blind haste, he ran into some young man with a scraggly haircut and beard wandering aimlessly through the wreckage.

"'Scuse me, mate," he croaked, oblivious to the madness around him. Sora pushed him out of the way. "Sorry to get in your way. Won't happen again!"

There in the middle of the beach was a pretty blonde girl, clutching her large stomach. Sora didn't have to blink twice to realize she was pregnant. "Are you okay?" he asked her, bending down by her side.

"I...think...I'm...going...into...LABOR!" she wheezed, her eyes bugging out in horror. "I can't have a baby! Not here, not now! Ooh, ooh, this is bad!" She squeezed his hand so tight, he thought she might pop it off.

"Hang on, I'll find a doctor, I promise," he assured her, giving her a calming pat on the back.

"No! No, please don't leave me alone!" she begged, tears in her eyes. "I can't be alone in this condition!"

"I won't leave you alone, uh, what's your name?"

"Claire!" she heaved, and nearly threw up.

"Claire, I won't leave you alone." He looked around quickly and spotted a big, BIG guy with long curly hair simply standing there, probably in shellshock. "Hey! Hey, you! Over here! Come here now!"

"What? What is it, dude? Whoa." He gulped nervously. "Like, dude, that chick's gonna have a baby any minute."

"No, she is not," Sora said firmly. "What's your name?"

"Uh, Hurley, dude-"

"Well, Hurley, you're gonna stay here and keep her calm while I go find a doctor, okay?" Sora informed him. Hurley drifted off, his eyes turning to the carnage. "No! Hurley, stay with me! Eyes on me. You need to focus! We have to help this girl, Claire, all right?" Hurley nodded. "Good!" Sora jumped up and ran off to find help.

"I need a doctor!" he screamed. "A doctor, I need a doctor! Anyone here a doctor?"

"I'm a doctor!" Sora turned around and there was the first man he had run into, the one who had seemed to taken command of the situation. "What's wrong?"

"There's a pregnant girl over there, and she's going into labor!" he explained, pointing back the way he came. He looked back and gaped in horror - Claire and Hurley were both sitting underneath the airplane's wing, and it was going to collapse on them!

"Fine place to leave them!" the doctor yelled angrily, running to rescue them. Sora scowled, but didn't fret. It would be simple; pull out the Keyblade and whack that wing away before it could hurt anybody. He held out his hand and summoned the Keyblade with his mind.

Nothing happened.

"What the heck?" Sora stammered. He snapped his fingers and clapped his hands, then tried it again. No Keyblade appeared for him. His jaw dropped in shock. "The Keyblade! Where is it?"

Suddenly, there was a horrific explosion as the wing collapsed, knocking everyone flat on their back. Sora got up, too scared to see if his hesitation had caused more harm, but there was Hurley, Claire and the doctor, all flat on their faces in the sand, blown clear of any hazard. He sighed in relief, then winced as the doctor glared at him angrily. "Uh, oops?"

Eventually, much of the initial chaos passed to be replaced with a certain sense of foreboding. People congregated on the beach away from the wreckage, wounded being separated, so on and so forth. Sora sat down beneath a palm tree and tried to gather his thoughts together. All right; something had to have attacked the gummi ship, but what? The exact sequence of events eluded him, and all the time he wondered; _What was up with those numbers?_ "4, 8, 15, 16, 23, 42," he repeated to himself. "What does it mean?"

"Sora!" He jumped up at the sound of his name, and there running down the beach towards him was none other than Kairi and Riku. They immediately tumbled together in a wild, excited embrace, hugging and laughing and just happy to be alive and be together. "What happened?" Riku asked, rubbing Sora's hair. "Where are we?"

"I thought it was the Destiny Islands when I first woke up, but I guess now we know better, right?" Sora laughed. "Man, what a disaster. Do you think what hit the gummi ship hit them too?"

"I don't know," Riku replied. "But have you noticed something odd about these people? I can't put my finger on it exactly..."

Sora, Kairi and Riku sat down underneath the palm tree, plotting out their next course of action. "Riku, can you call up your Keyblade?" Sora asked.

Riku held up his hand to summon Way to the Dawn. Nothing appeared. "What the _hell_," he snarled bitterly, and tried it again. Kairi looked on with concern in her eyes. "What does this mean?"

"I don't know," Sora whispered worriedly. He looked up and saw the bald man staring at them. The bald man smiled at them, an orange peel lodged over his teeth, giving him an immensely peculiar grin, then proceeded to eat that orange peel. "Guys," Sora whispered. "_Where are we?_"

Merlin closed his eyes, strain visible on his brow. "I can't," he sighed angrily. He opened his eyes and looked at Leon and Aerith. "I cannot manage to locate the Keyblade Bearer."

"Is he...dead?" Aerith whispered anxiously.

"No," Merlin replied. "Not dead. If he or any of them died, I'd have felt it immediately. This is something else entirely. As if they simply don't exist at all. What a most peculiar situation. I must delve into this further, on my own."

"This is not good," Leon muttered with his typical knack for understatement. "Kermit said they left for his world. Fine. But now they're just...gone? Like that?" Merlin nodded. "I don't understand it."

"Perhaps we should go look for them," Aerith suggested.

"I'd go myself if not for the fact General Hein has me under surveillance," Leon said. Aerith looked at him in surprise. "Oh, yeah, he's watching my every move like a hawk. Waiting for me to slip up so he can make his move. Blast it!" Leon slammed his fist against the wall. "Now on top of all these children getting sick, this is just what we needed!"

"I'll go." The three of them turned to find Cloud standing in the doorway. He stepped into the conference room and it shut behind him with a whoosh. "I'll find them. They need you here to handle Hein. I'm expendable."

"No, Cloud," Aerith said. "No one is expendable. Not you, not anyone."

"She's right," Leon said. "And frankly, if you don't mind, I'd like you to stay here. Please." Cloud raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "I know you hold no obligation to SeeD or Radiant Garden, but you've fought with us before. If Hein makes a move against us, all I have are mostly inexperienced young children to fight with, something I can't allow. I need your sword and your strength by my side. Will you fight with me?" Leon held out his hand.

Cloud was silent a moment, staring absently into the air. He looked at Aerith and she smiled at him warmly, and slowly, he clasped Leon's hand. "I will fight with you," he declared.

"What's all this talk about fighting?" Merlin scoffed. "You talk as if Hein will lead an armed force against us! President Laguna would never-"

"Hein has the President's ear," Leon said. "And if he can convince him that somehow the Heartless have infiltrated our ranks, Laguna will authorize the use of force. Not that something like protocols and rules ever stopped Hein before. He's dead-set intent on taking SeeD for himself, and will do whatever it takes to get it. If it comes to fighting, I won't hesitate either."

The door opened and Cid walked in. "Whoa! Did I miss anything?"

"Nothing too important," Leon replied. "What's the news on this so-called Queen of Narnia? Who is she?"

"Haven't gotten to the bottom of it yet," Cid replied. "Checked through all the old files, even had Tron help me. No such luck. As far as we know, there has been and never was a place called 'Narnia'. I ran 'em three times, and they each time came up negative."

"Another dead end," Leon groaned. He sat down in the chair at the end of the long conference table, holding his head in his hands. "I'm a soldier, not a leader. I don't know what I'm doing."

"You're being too hard on yourself for starters, mister," Aerith chided. "A soldier does his tasks; a leader assigns them. You're trying too hard to do everything yourself. That's why we're here, to help you. Tell us what to do!"

Leon was quiet a moment, then rose to his feet. "Cid, I want you to infiltrate the Queen's quarters where she's staying. Find out whatever you can as soon as possible."

"I'm not exactly known for my stealth abilities now, Leon," Cid commented dryly.

"Recruit whoever you need to," Leon said. "Use that robot of yours if need be." Cid nodded in agreement. "Aerith, Merlin, get to the bottom of this crisis with the children. Use a fine-tooth comb if you have to, I don't want anything getting through."

"You can count on us, Leon," she assured him.

"Cloud, you and I will begin outlining a defense. I need it kept quiet, there's too many leaks in the system, I don't want to attract Hein's attention too early." They walked into the command control center just to encounter Kronk and JD coming to meet them. Kronk looked as if he had sucked on a lemon. "What is it?"

"Yeah, Leon, dude, gotta promise you won't get upset," JD began.

"I'M SO SORRY!" Kronk sobbed, a waterfall of tears spraying all over the place. "I DIDN'T KNOW! WHY COULDN'T IT HAVE BEEN ME? BEEN ME?" He grabbed Merlin's hat and blew his nose in it. "Whoa, hey, much better. I felt my ears pop. Cool. That's always a weird sensation, sends a chill down my spine."

"What are you babbling on about?" Leon demanded.

"We've discovered why the kids are all getting sick," JD explained. "There's something in these freaky pastries Kronk has."

"I ordered the turkey tofu, remember," Kronk explained. "And ended up with all these cans of Turkish delight, remember? But as we weren't billed and there was no return address, so I'm dishing 'em out you know, putting on the old hair net, doling out the mashed potatoes and gravy with a side order of Turkish delight-"

"Could you get to the point?" Leon demanded.

"Uh-huh, yeah well, I had to take a closer look at these little thingies," JD said. "Here's a lid off one of the canisters. You tell me what's wrong with this picture?" Leon took the silver lid and looked at the name stamped on the inside - SHIN-RA CORP.

"Hell's bells," Leon whispered. He looked at Cloud, then back at Kronk. "Round up all these canisters and destroy them immediately! We can't risk further-"

"Leon!" Yuffie ran up behind them, jumping up and down. "Leon, Leon, Leon! It's President Laguna!"

"What about the President? We're a little too busy for his excellency-"

"No!" She grabbed his face and held his mouth shut. "Shut up and listen to me! The President's just come down with something! He's sick!" Leon turned ashen. "It gets worse. Hein's taken command of the government. It's coup!"

Leon clenched his fists tightly. "This day just keeps getting better!"

Sora, Kairi and Riku wandered through the jungle, watching the fire blaze from the beach. "Do you think anyone will come?" Kairi asked.

"I don't know," Riku said. "There's something mighty suspicious about this island. We can't summon our Keyblades, we can't use magic. It doesn't make any sense."

"Hey, you kids shouldn't be wandering around out there!" It was the dark-skinned man with the strange accent; Sayid was his name. "No telling what sort of predators lurk in the jungle."

"Listen to him, like we're just kids," Riku scoffed under his breath. "We've handled tougher monsters than anything that's living here, that's for sure."

Suddenly, the most horrendous sound erupted out of the woods, and trees began toppling left and right. Sora, Kairi and Riku burst out of the jungle and back to the fires, all the other survivors gathering around to gaze in wonder and horror at what was taking place. "What was that?" someone whispered.

"Man, I wish I had my Keyblade right about now," Sora moaned.

"I wish you did too," Kairi whispered, sliding her hand into his and squeezing it tight. The strange noises moved on, pushing through the trees at an awesome pace.

"What was that?" Hurley wondered. "A dinosaur?"

"There are no more dinosaurs, Hurley," Dr. Jack interrupted. He walked away from the camp to a smaller corner of the beach where a makeshift hospital for the wounded had been erected. Sora decided to follow him.

"Yeah, found it out near the trees," he heard someone say. The person sounded arrogant, smug, utterly self-important and not caring if anyone disliked him for it. "Weird thing, isn't it? Looks like a giant key, like you might win at a carnival fair or something, but it's made out of metal. Least I can figure anyways, not any metal I know. Sure would like to see the convertible that this sucker starts! Heh, heh."

Sora pushed through the bushes to find the tall, suave man known simply as 'Sawyer' talking with the pretty brunette girl who had been keeping mostly to herself...Kate, Sora recalled her name. But what amazed him was that Sawyer had the Keyblade. He swung it around, hacking through a tree with amazing ease. "Cool, huh? And it's still sharp, even if it does look a little funny looking."

"Hey!" Sora yelled, charging out of the bushes. "Give that back! That belongs to me!"

Sawyer scowled angrily and took a step to the right, tripping Sora flat on his face. Sora rolled over and tossed a handful of sand into Sawyer's eyes and the big man yelled fiercely, punching Sora right in the face. Blood trickled down his nose and he grew dizzy. "Don't tick me off, Bigfoot," Sawyer warned. "I found it lying out in the jungle fair and square."

"It belongs to me," Sora growled, getting to his feet. "Give it back _now_."

"I don't know what it is, but out here in the middle of nowhere, it's worth its weight in a hundred axes. I think I might just hang onto it, Spiky!"

"Give him his sword back, Sawyer," Kate said, stepping between them before more blows could be exchanged. "Maybe do the right thing for once in your life?"

"Don't lecture me, Freckles," he said. "I found it, finders keepers. Possession is nine/tenths of the law, remember? I never saw him with it before. Heck, I don't much recall seeing him on the airplane either." He squinted at Sora suspiciously.

"Leave him alone, he's just a kid," Kate said. "And since when did you ever care about a little thing like the law? Hmm?"

"I dunno, since when did you?" he retorted. Kate frowned awkwardly. "See? We all have something to hide around here, so don't go playing Mother Teresa on me. Like the man said, he who is without sin cast the first stone." A rock flew through the air and hit him nicely on his head. He staggered backwards. "OUCH! Who did that?" Kate and Sora tried not to laugh.

Kairi came running up, Riku right behind her. "Give him that Keyblade back right now!" she yelled angrily, another rock ready in her fist. "I mean it! If you want to get off this island, then your best chance lies in returning it to him right now!"

Sawyer towered over her, a tall man and muscular, but Kairi didn't flinch, and they stared each other in the eye before Sawyer backed off, growing uneasy around her fierce stare. "Hell, maybe I don't want off this island, Bright Eyes," he scoffed. "Ever consider that? One man's hell is another man's heaven." He swung the Keyblade across his shoulder, sitting down on a ripped out aircraft seat. "It's every man, woman and child for himself. We live alone, die alone." He sniffed dismally, only to jump out of his skin when a long knife landed in the cushion beside him.

Everyone turned to see who threw it. There stood the bald man, smiling gently, twirling a dangerous knife in his fingers. "He is right, you know. We live alone, die alone. In the end, what does it matter?"

Jack walked up and pulled the knife out of the seat. "Depending on what you were aiming for, I say you're either the best or worst knife thrower I've ever seen. What did you say your name is again?"

"I didn't," he answered. "But it's Locke. John Locke. We need to band together if we intend to survive this island until help arrives. We need food, water, shelter. The meals on the plane won't last very long."

"And how do you propose we do this?" Jack asked. "We don't have any guns."

Locke smiled cryptically and idly turned to a large lockbox by his foot. He lifted it up, revealing a stash of knives ranging from a few inches to a foot, each of them razor sharp. "I'll need help. I can track, but I can't do it all by myself."

"Who the heck carries that many knives with him?" Hurley asked incredulously. "Dude's got some serious issues."

Sora rubbed his jaw. "Do you think he's a hunter?"

"I don't know," Riku said, then walked forward. "Hey! John Locke! I'll help you hunt for food."

"Sounds good to me," Locke declared. "Know how to use one of these things?" He passed a knife hilt-first to Riku. He twirled it around and threw it, nailing a tree trunk easily. "Excellent. Then I guess the hunt begins." Riku smiled eagerly. "What's your name, son?"

"Riku," he answered. "And those are my friends, Sora, and the rock-throwing champion is Kairi."

"Sora, Riku and Kairi, huh?" Hurley muttered. "Sound Japanese to me. But you don't look like Japanese. Now that's just strange, dudes."

"Come on, Riku, people are getting hungry," Locke said. He shouldered his backpack. "Sooner we get into the woods, sooner we can pick up some boar trails." Riku followed right along, smiling excitedly.

"If you ask me, Locke's eager to get into the woods, but not to hunt boar," Kairi whispered. "What do you suppose he's after?"

"Same thing we are," Sora said. "An answer!"


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6

"That's why I need you to find the Keyblade bearer," Cloud said flatly.

Valentine leaned against the wall, face shrouded in his trademark red hood. "And what's in it for me?"

Cloud turned to look at him. "What about the satisfaction of a job well done?"

"You know, for a guy who doesn't smile much, you sure do have a mighty funny sense of humor," Valentine deadpanned. "Why do you care so much about these people, yet try to keep them at arm's length at the same time? What have they ever done for you? First you don't know what you want, taking odd jobs here and there, working for anyone including certain lords of undead realms, then you're hunting Sephiroth as you should have been, and now you're here, playing buddy-buddy with a little green frog and taking orders from a bunch of teachers. Is it Aerith, this time, or the strong one, Tifa? Or maybe both, you old player? Or something else entirely different? Is it the amphibian? You kiss the frog, he turns into a handsome prince?"

"Actually, I turned into a handsome prince once and had to be kissed to be turned back into a frog." Kermit walked out onto the balcony, smiling cheerfully even though his arm was still in a sling. "That was an ordeal, yeesh! It's hard catching flies with a human tongue, let me tell you. Hi-ho! I thought I'd find you out here, Cloud. Come to brood some more?" He turned to Valentine. "Hello! I'm Kermit the Frog; you must be Mr. Valentine. Cloud spoke about you earlier. Very pleased to meet you."

"That would place you in a very small crowd, Mr. The Frog," Valentine replied.

"I make it a habit to be pleased to meet everyone, no matter what they're like," Kermit explained. "That way we can all get off on the right flipper. That's a little amphibian humor for you."

"Swell," Valentine said. "Cloud and Kermit - you'd make a great comedy routine, you know that?" He stepped off to the edge of the balcony and hopped up on the railing. "All right Cloud. I do owe you one from last time. I'll find your precious Keyblade Bearer. But after this, we're even." He hopped off the balcony and soared away, turning into the simulacrum of a blood red cloud.

Cloud watched him fly away. "And where do you stand in the middle of all this, Kermit? With SeeD?"

"I stand on the side of Light, from which my Keyblade came," Kermit answered. "And on the side of King Mickey. I think it's safe to say he'd stand on the side of SeeD, so I'm here all the way."

"Then I hope you're prepared, Kermit," Cloud said. He looked out across the wide-open vista of beautiful Radiant Garden, watching as the sun began to set both literally and figuratively. "Because this is one battle I am not looking forward to fighting. Sephiroth is evil, the Heartless are monsters...these are human beings."

"Just so long as there aren't any frogs, I'll be a-okay," Kermit said. Cloud looked down at him. "That's a joke, Cloud." Cloud's lips twitched slightly, beginning to curl upwards but not quite making an apex. "No, stop, don't smile, please! You'll only make me fall on the ground laughing myself to death."

Locke led Riku, Sora and Kairi through the jungle, amazingly adept despite their strange surroundings. "So, what were you back home, Locke?" Riku asked, walking right by Locke's side. "Like in Special Forces, right? Some sort of secret agent, I bet."

Locke just smiled slyly. He leaned against a tree and idly began peeling an orange with his knife, slicing off chucks and generously sharing them with the kids. "I was...the regional collections supervisor at a box company. Made boxes. My job to make sure they got to where they were supposed to go, and they we got paid for it."

Riku looked at him oddly, then burst into wild laughter. "Yeah, right. You're a real comedian, you know that Locke?"

"You have a good laugh, Riku," Locke said. "Speaks highly of your inner character. You should do it more often." He nodded towards the jungle. "Well, come on kids. Those boars ain't gonna hunt themselves." He picked up his backpack and strolled along.

"Man, what a great guy," Riku said in private to Sora and Kairi. "He knows so much and is so willing to share. If I only knew one tenth of what he does, man, I'd never go wrong. Wish I knew him back when I was a kid on Destiny Island." He frowned sadly, a rather uncharacteristic display of what he truly felt. "Maybe I'd have never gone wrong then."

"Riku, I hate to rain on your parade," Sora whispered, "but I think Locke is doing this all wrong. I'm no expert on tracking boar, believe me, but, uh, shouldn't there be some boar tracks for us to follow?"

"I hope we don't find any boar at all," Kairi said. "I don't think I could eat any after having met Miss Piggy."

"Yeah, talk about your real bores," Riku deadpanned. Kairi elbowed him hard in the ribs. "Ow! Okay, so maybe I took away a little more from those two hecklers than I realized! Jeez!" They stopped in their tracks and looked around. Locke had vanished. "Hey, where'd he go?" He cupped his hands around his mouth. "Locke! Hey! John Locke!"

"Now don't panic," Kairi sighed. "He couldn't have gotten far. Locke! Hey! Hello?" She took a few steps forward then stepped on something strange. "What's this?"

"Careful," Sora said, moving towards her. "It looks like a-" He was about to say 'trap', and he was right, only it sprung before he could pull her out of the way. Instantly, all three of them were caught up in a rope net, swinging helplessly from a tree.

"Great, Kairi," Riku grumbled. "Just great. Always thinking with your mouth." She stuck out her tongue and blew the raspberries at him.

"Will you just calm down and let's figure a way out of this mess!" Sora yelled. "Man, I wish I had my Keyblade about now!"

"Sora! See if you can reach the knife Locke gave me!" Riku said. Sora tried to wiggle through the binding ropes, his fingers inching for the knife hilt on Riku's blade. "Just a little closer, that's all. A little closer-"

Suddenly, the entire net collapsed and they landed together in a big heap of tangled limbs and ropes, snarling and cursing at each other. The ominous click of a rifle automatically brought them to attention, and they all stood up to stare at the strange, wild-eyed, brown-haired woman who currently held them captive. "Oh, holy, moly," Sora stammered, staring down the business end of a rifle. "Uh, uh, hi?"

"Get up," the woman ordered in a strange accent. "Are you alone?"

"Well, we're-" Sora began, only for Riku to step on his foot. "OUCH! Why'd you do that?"

"We're alone, yeah," Riku assured her. "Who are you? We're not your enemy."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," she replied stiffly. She motioned for them to move. "Not a word. I won't have you calling the Others."

"Others?" Riku asked. "What Others? What are you talking about?"

The strange, scary woman remained silent, glancing around the woods warily. In the distance, a terrible roar echoed out, and the kids looked at each other nervously. "It's not safe here," she whispered. "Consider yourselves lucky - for now." She slipped into the woods, melting from sight. "We shall meet again, strangers."

"That was weird," Sora said.

"What's that roaring?" Kairi asked, pulling closer to Sora. "Is it that monster? And is that monster a Heartless? Or worse?"

"No, that's not the monster," Riku said. "Sounds different."

"Hey! Hey, Riku! Sora! Kairi!" Locke came running back into the clearing. "Hey, come on! Someone's in trouble! I need your help!"

"On it, Locke!" Riku smiled. "Never heard an adult ask for my help before. That is so cool." He grabbed his knife and ran after Locke, Sora and Kairi hard pressed to keep up.

"Help! Help me! Please!" a young boy yelled. They came to a clearing and saw a giant white bear attacking a grove of trees. Inside was a little black boy, sobbing fearfully and trying to worm away from the bear's enormous, deadly paws. "Please, somebody..."

"Is that a _polar bear_?" Sora gasped. "In the middle of a jungle?"

"Weird, yes, but that's the least of our worries at the moment," Locke said. "All right, here's what we'll do. Sora, you and Kairi head that way, create a diversion. Riku and I will try and attack the bear. It's tough, but its face is vulnerable. One blade to the eye will kill it."

"That's," Kairi declared flatly, "a horrible plan. One swipe from that bear's paws will take off your head!"

"Or the head of that poor kid," Riku replied.

"That's the spirit, Riku," Locke said, slapping the young man's back proudly. Riku smiled broadly. "Fortune favors the bold, and no one's bolder than you are. Let's get medieval on this bear's butt, turn him into a rug!"

Kairi and Sora crept around the side of the bear, climbing up into a tree. "Yo! Hey! Bear!" Sora and Kairi grabbed a couple coconuts and sent them hurtling down on the bear's head. It turned around and roared angrily, moving away from the trapped boy. Locke and Riku hid quietly behind some bushes as it came closer.

"Now, Riku!" Locke yelled, and dived out. The bear never smelled him, for he wisely hid downwind, and the blade rammed into the beast's throat. It made a horrendous yelp and galloped off, Riku coming up behind to hurl the blade and lodge it in the bear's rump. The bear, wounded now, kept on running and didn't look back. "Ha, ha, we did it!" Locke cheered, and shook Riku's hand, slapping his shoulder proudly. Riku just grinned awkwardly, looking at Locke as a son would look upon his father. "Great job, Riku, great job. I'm really proud of you."

"Thank you, John," Riku stammered, trying hard not to blush and failing miserably.

The young boy came out of the threes, hanging onto a dog's leash, but no dog. "Wow, thanks, Mr. Locke!" he said. "That was awesome."

"You really should be more careful, Walt," Locke chided gently. "What are you doing out here by yourself?"

"Looking for my dog, Vincent, of course," Walt answered, holding up the leash. "He keeps running off. I'm afraid he's gonna get eaten by the monster, or a bear."

"Vincent's a smart dog," Locke assured him. "He can take care of himself. Come on, we better get you back to the caves. Riku and I will search for your dog for you."

They hiked back to the caves where everyone had relocated after the crash. As soon as they got back, someone came out to meet them - Walt's father, Michael. "There you are!" he yelled angrily. "How many times do I have to tell you, don't wander off! Get in there now!"

"I was just looking for Vincent," Walt protested feebly.

"I don't care, young man!" Michael yelled. "You are gonna give me a heart attack, I swear!" He turned to Locke. "And you! You're deliberately encouraging him to disobey me, aren't you?" Locke remained calm and silent.

"Hey!" Riku snarled, not liking it when anyone attacked his adopted mentor. "Just back off! We happened to save your son's life! We're the good guys here!"

"You know, I don't like any of you either," Michael snapped. Sora and Kairi gasped in disbelief at such bellicosity. "I don't know if it's your weird clothes, or your funny hair, or your big shoes, but something about you three just smacks all wrong with me, and I'm not the only one who feels that way. If Locke doesn't mind hanging out with you freaks, maybe he's as big a freak as you are! Stay away from my son," he whispered. "Or I'll kill you. I promise." He took Walt by the hand and walked back inside the caves.

"What a tool," Riku sneered. "Ah, who needs him?"

"I don't blame him," Locke said. "After all, it's tough being a Dad, especially in a situation like this."

"Hmm," Riku sighed. "I bet you had a great dad, didn't you Locke?"

Locke grew quiet and thoughtful, almost sad in a way. "No, I didn't. C'mon, let's get go."

They entered the cool, clean caves and promptly split up. Kairi dashed off to be with Kate and Claire, with whom she naturally had a strong rapport. Sora wandered up to Jack and Sayid, who were going over some maps. Around them lay bits of broken devices salvaged from the airplane. "And you can make a radio from this?" Jack asked Sayid.

"Hard to say," Sayid said. "These pieces are pretty badly smashed up. And I need a power source. However, there is one piece that may make all those points irrelevant." He pulled something out of his pocket and laid it before Jack.

Sora made a slight squeaking sound. It was a gummi block!

"What the heck is that?" Jack asked, holding it and studying it incredulously.

"I do not know," Sayid answered. "I found it in the woods. I do not think it was on the plane, not unless Oceanic Airlines is secretly experimenting with technology not of this world. It is beyond anything I have ever worked with in my life."

Jack frowned and laid the gummi block back down. "Where did you find it exactly, Sayid?" Sora asked.

"Oh, hello, Sora," Sayid greeted. "Out in the jungle."

"Were there more like it?" Sora asked. "Uh, they look really cool."

"No, it was by itself. I had rigged a simple metal detector to search for pieces of wreckage, and this is what I found, although it certainly is no metal I know of."

Sora sighed dejectedly. "Okay." Jack got up and went to where he kept his own things, plus all the salvaged medicine they had found. "Hey, Jack, I needed to talk with you."

"About what? Shoot, Sora, I'm all ears."

"When me and the others were out hunting, we ran into a-" He paused, looking at a crumpled paper in Jack's things. "What's this?" Before Jack could react, he picked it up and looked at it. It was a mug shot - of Kate? "Is this what I think it is?" There it was, in black and white - Kate had been a criminal!

"I'll take that!" Jack growled, snatching it away. "Not a word to anyone about this, all right?" Sora nodded understandingly. "I don't care what Kate's past may have been, she's our friend now."

"Yeah, right," Sora said cautiously. He looked across the cave to where Kairi was with Kate and Claire, all three of them laughing happily. "Could you excuse me a moment?"

"Wait a sec, didn't you say you had something to tell me?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah, there're polar bears in the jungle, so be careful!" He ran off, leaving a bewildered Jack standing with his mouth hanging open.

"Hey, Kairi! Can I talk to you?" He smiled sheepishly, trying to avoid eye contact with Kate.

"Why? Is it important?" Kairi laughed. "Sora's lost without me!" Claire and Kate laughed too - apparently the subject had been 'men'. "Yeah, what is it?"

"Over HERE," Sora insisted, dragging her out of everyone's earshot. "Kairi, I don't want you hanging around with Kate anymore."

Kairi's smile faded into a bad scowl. "Why? What's wrong with her? I like Kate, she's cool!"

"It's just that I'm concerned, all right?" Sora said. "Don't hang around with her."

"Sora, if I didn't know any better, I'd say you were telling me what to do, ordering me around," Kairi growled, crossing her arms angrily. "And you better not be telling me what to do, or I'll be forced to offer you a knuckle sandwich!"

"No, no, no, it's not that!" Sora pleaded. "I'm just telling - I mean, I'm trying to look out for you!"

"You're trying to be the boss of me, that's what!" Kairi cried out, attracting too much attention. "Ooh, Sora...! Sometimes you just know how to make me angry!" She marched away.

"Kairi! Kairi, wait!" He grabbed her hand, only for her to spin around and slap him right in the face. He touched his cheek, all hot and pink now, startled by her attitude, and she ran off. "Hold on! Kairi!" He ran after her, bumping into someone coming into the cave. Firewood tumbled out of the man's arms onto the ground, and Sora hastily helped him pick the sticks up. "Sorry, about that," Sora moaned, grinning sheepishly. "Ethan."

"That's okay, Sora," Ethan Rom said, rubbing the boy's hair in a friendly fashion. "You just gotta watch where you're going, that's all!" Sora nodded and rushed after Kairi.

Kairi marched right into the jungle, her chin up, refusing to turn around to Sora. "Come on, Kairi, I didn't mean anything by it!" he yelled. "Will you stop and talk to me, let me explain why?"

"I don't care," Kairi said. "Kate's a great girl. Her dad was in the army, you know. She knows all sorts of things, just like Locke. Is that it? Is it because girls aren't allowed to be smart?"

"Stop putting words in my mouth, _please_," he begged. "Ah! Watch out!"

They came to the edge of a cliff, overlooking a beautiful lagoon. A waterfall tumbled down into the pool, making for a lovely sight. "Jeez, Kairi, you almost walked off the cliff!"

"What if I wanted too?" she sneered, sticking out her tongue.

"That's stupid, who would want to purposely walk off a-" He stopped talking, gawking as Kairi took off her shoes, her vest and her skirt, standing there in nothing but her t-shirt and underpants. "Kairi, you had better not be doing what I think you're doing." Kairi smiled playfully and stuck out her tongue, then walked to the very edge of the cliff. "Oh, no, no, no, no, no! That's dangerous! Kairi!" She leapt off the edge and launched herself into a graceful, acrobatic swan dive, plummeting down through the waterfall and into the lagoon below. "KAIRI! Oh, man!" Quickly, Sora took off his shoes and shirt, took a deep breath and made a hasty prayer, then flung himself over the edge. Arms and legs flailing wildly, he slammed into the water in an unceremonious belly flop.

When he surfaced, the only sound beside falling water he heard was Kairi's hysterical giggles. He scowled at her. "What are YOU laughing at?"

"You, silly!" she teased. "Your falling into the water like that was hilarious! It was too much! The way you swung your arms as if you could fly!"

"Oh, YEAH?" he scoffed, and promptly splashed her. She squealed and kicked water at him, and soon the two were engaged in an epic water fight, splashing each other and swimming after each other until they were both utterly exhausted. They swam to shore and crawled up on the beach, giddy and breathless. They lie side by side, staring at each other gently.

"You know, people are gonna talk," Kairi whispered, tracing her finger around Sora's face and lips tenderly. "The two of us, out here, all alone. They're gonna say all sorts of things, whispers and rumors."

Sora felt somewhat uncomfortable, but also very excited. "Yeah...so?"

"Well, seeing how they are going to talk, maybe it really doesn't matter what we do then, right?" She closed her eyes and puckered her lips, pulling closer to Sora. His heart beat very rapidly now, and he closed his eyes and reached out for her, hungry to just hold her and to be held by her...

"WHOA! DUDES!" Both of them jumped up and brushed themselves off. "Whoa, talk about Embarrassment City!" Hurley stood in the grass, growing red with embarrassment. "Ha, ha, this is funny. Reminds of a bad dream I once had. I-yi-yi! Sorry to interrupt, dudes. Just call me 'Cold Shower'. Uh, don't worry, I won't say anything! My lips are sealed!" He mimed zipping his lips, locking them, and throwing away the key.

"What _is_ it, _Hurley_?" Sora growled angrily.

"Oh! Dudes! I'm an idiot! There's trouble in the caves, come quick!" Hurley rambled on wildly. "C-Claire! She's been attacked! Come, hurry back with me!"

"Claire!" Kairi gasped in horror. "Oh, no!" Hastily, they scrambled back to recover their clothes and ran at breakneck speed for the caves.

They ran into the caves, everyone crowded around poor Claire, who sobbed hysterically. "He was trying to attack my BABY!" she screamed. Kate rocked her comfortingly. Locke and Riku stood to one side, looking angry, as if hungry for blood. "He had this needle, and he stuck me with it! He was going to hurt my BABY!"

Jack, Sayid and Ethan Rom came in now, breathless from searching. "There's no trace of an attacker," Sayid said.

"We'll need to form a search party, right away," Ethan suggested. "Locke's a good hunter, he could find him."

"For his sake, I hope we don't," Locke remarked angrily.

"Or maybe there's no one at all?" Jack suggested.

"What are you saying?" Kate demanded. "Claire said-"

"All I'm saying, is that Claire is very pregnant, in a harsh environment, and has just undergone something very traumatic."

"I did not make it up!" Claire screamed. "I am not crazy!"

"I didn't say you were! But under these conditions-"

"I can't stay here, these caves aren't safe," Claire decided. "I'm going back to the beach now!"

"Claire, please, you can't," Jack sighed.

"I can do whatever I want!" she shouted, and pushed past him, walking out of the cave.

"I'll go with her, to make sure she gets there all right," Kairi said, and followed after her.

"Dudes, this is not good," Hurley said. "We have no idea who might have hurt her. This reminds me of something I've wanted to do. I have the flight manifest. If I check off all the names, maybe I can find out who everyone is, and where they are."

"A flight manifest?" Sora moaned. "As in, a list of everyone on the plane?"

"Of course, what else could I mean?" Hurley asked.

Sora scratched his head. "Hurley, could you keep a secret?" Hurley looked at him curiously.

Kairi followed Claire to the beach. "You shouldn't be angry with Jack. He is a doctor, after all."

"And that makes it all right to insult my intelligence?" Claire demanded tearfully. "I know what happened. Someone attacked me, attacked my baby specifically! I didn't imagine that!"

Kairi sighed gently. "I believe you, Claire. But the caves are safer than the beach. On the beach, you're out in the open, they could attack you again-"

"Out in the open, where everyone will see me," Claire replied. "I've made up my mind and that's it!" Suddenly, the two girls stopped in their tracks. There in the pathway stood Ethan Rom, smiling at them oddly. Instinctively, Kairi stepped in front of Claire protectively.

"Where you going to so fast?" he asked in an odd, singsong sort of voice.

Back in the caves, Hurley and Sora went over the manifest. "I'm glad you told me the truth, Sora," Hurley said. "Although how did get here then?"

"I really, _really_ wish I could tell you," Sora said. "But I'm not entirely sure myself! We were in our, um, our plane, and then we picked up a weird transmission."

"What sort of transmission?" Hurley asked.

"Numbers, just repeating over and over again," Sora answered. "4...8...15...16...23...42. And then we crashed here! Weird, huh?" Hurley looked as if he had seen a ghost. "Something wrong, Hurley?"

"Uh, n-nothing," he stammered. "I better get done. I'm almost finished here." His eyes lit up excitedly. "Uh-oh."

"Uh-oh? Uh-oh, funny, or uh-oh, oh-no?"

"You, Riku and Kairi aren't the only names not on this list!" Hurley yelped. "Jack! Jack! Locke! Yo! Dudes!" He ran off to find them. "Guys! Guys! We're in trouble! I went over the list and someone isn't on it! Ethan Rom!"

Locke, Jack and Riku came running to him. "What do you mean?" Jack demanded. Hurley explained what he had done. Jack suddenly grew very, very upset, guilt plain on his face. "Where's Ethan right now? Where's Claire!"

"Oh, no!" Sora gasped. "Kairi!"

"Everybody calm down," Locke said. He opened his backpack and handed out knives to everyone. "Let's go get him."

They hurried to the path, but it was deserted. "Here!" Locke bent down and studied the earth carefully. "Tracks. Three sets. Claire, Kairi, and the third's a man...Ethan Rom."

"This is all my fault!" Jack roared, punching his fists against a tree, oblivious to any pain. "If only I had listened to her, none of this would have happened. We've got to find them!"

"We'll split up," Locke said. "You take Kate and Sayid, head south. Riku, Sora and I will head west. That way leads to the beach, and that way leads to the river, so those are the only directions they could have taken." Jack nodded uneasily, but did as Locke suggested.

"I can't believe this," Sora moaned. "I never suspected him once! He always seemed like such a real nice guy!"

"Don't worry about passing blame now," Locke said. "We need to focus on the situation. Keep your mind clear, observe everything. The smallest clue could prove vital." He stopped and touched a branch. "Like here. The leaves are disturbed. Someone's been through here all right."

"We're on the right trail then?" Sora asked hopefully.

"Maybe," Locke said. "Or maybe Ethan is so good at eluding us, he plotted out this false trail. Won't know until we reach the end." Sora hung his head dejectedly.

"Hold up hope, Sora," Riku urged. "We'll find her."

"Actually, as worried as I am for Kairi, I'm more worried for Claire in a way," Sora said. "After all, Ethan attacked her, and her baby. I can't stand the idea of someone attacking a pregnant girl like that. It sickens me!"

"He'll pay," Riku whispered, idly twirling his dagger. "He'll pay dearly."

They followed Locke along the trail for better or worse, going deeper and deeper into the foreboding jungle. Now more than ever, Sora wished he had his Keyblade, yet at the same time felt uncomfortable by his unnatural need to have it. Surely he could do all right without it; Locke and Riku had nothing but knives and they were cool, confident, in control of their lives and destinies. More and more, Sora found himself slipping back into his old mold of envying Riku his strengths instead of admiring them, and that made him feel even worse.

As if things weren't bad enough, it started to rain, and what meager tracks Locke could pick up slowly eroded. "Blast it, we won't get much further in this mess," Locke sighed. "Hang on. Sora, wait here, Riku and I will check up ahead. If you see anything, call us, all right?" Sora nodded dejectedly, feeling more like a third wheel than of anyone of importance to this mission. Locke and Riku climbed up a hill, looked around and disappeared down the other side.

Sora sat there, cold, miserable and alone, wishing he had his Keyblade, wishing he had kissed Kairi when he had the chance, wishing for a lot of things he knew would not happen without him working for it, when suddenly he heard the mud squish behind him. He jumped up and saw him now, Ethan Rom, staring at him as a wolf might stare at its helpless prey. "You!" Sora screamed, and attacked.

But Rom was faster - MUCH faster. He brought his fist up, and Sora ran right into it, then proceeded to pummel him in the face, neck and chest. Sora swung back feebly, only for Rom to block the blow and punch him again...and again...and _again_. Sora collapsed into the mud, his senses reeling, unable to take much more.

"Stop following me," Rom said in a cold, mechanical voice. "Stop following me, or I will kill one of the girls. We're desperate people, and we will not be stopped, not even by you, Keyblade Bearer."

Sora reeled as if hit again. "How did...?"

"We know more than you can possibly imagine," Rom informed him. "We know you can't access your Keyblade and the immense powers it grants you. Without your Keyblade, you are nothing. Just a little boy, still playing a game; but this time, the stakes are a lot higher than just impressing Riku." He brought his fist down one last time, and this time Sora went down and didn't get up.

On the other side of the hill, Riku and Locke had lost the trail. "This stinks!" Riku groaned, sitting down on a fallen log. "We'll never find them now."

"Never say never," Locke said. "I could spew the usual cliches of don't give up hope and stuff, but it's just practical. There's only so many places they can hide on this island. We'll find them. Look, you're tired, head back to camp with Sora."

"No, no I want to keep moving," Riku said. "I don't want to let you down."

"Let me down? Riku, you've more than proven yourself. Your young, but you have the heart, soul and mind of an experienced warrior. I'm the one who doesn't want to let you down. Here." He held up his knife. "You'll need this more than I will for now." He tossed it to Riku, but he Riku accidentally let it slip. It fell on the ground with a thud.

A _thud_?

"What the heck?" Riku asked, getting down on his hands and knees and pulling aside leaves and debris. Buried beneath the muck was a metal lid...a hatchway leading down into the ground. He shook his head, unsure he was seeing what he was seeing. "What is it?"

Locke smiled broadly. "What we've been looking for." Riku looked at him curiously. "Answers."


End file.
